Eli's Hospice Insider

Medicare is offering you a helping hand with the Hospice Item Set. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has issued two new fact sheets about the data collection tool, as well as a new question-and-answer set.

Remember: Medicare wants HIS data only for patients admitted July 1 or later, CMS says. “Hospices are not required to submit any HIS records for patient admissions prior to July 1, 2014, regardless of when the patient is discharged,” CMS says on the Hospice Quality Reporting Program website. “If a provider attempts to submit a HIS-Discharge record for patients with an admission date prior to 7/1/2014, that record will be rejected by the QIES ASAP system.”

The Q&A document released July 30 “reflects frequently asked Hospice Item Set (HIS) related questions that were received on the Quality Help Desk during the second quarter (April-June) of 2014,” CMS says.

Links to the new fact sheets and Q&As are at www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments/Hospice-Quality-Reporting/Hospice-Item-Set-HIS.html.