Eli's Hospice Insider

OMB approves new reporting form.

A sea change in how Medicare will pay for hospice has begun. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services began collecting quality data for hospices in January, although at this point the collection is voluntary.

Background: In its fiscal year 2012 payment rule for hospices, CMS required pay for reporting in 2013. But CMS instituted voluntary reporting starting in January. "Voluntary reporting of the structural measure data with specific quality indicators ... would allow us to learn what the important patient care quality issues are for hospices and would serve to provide useful information in the design and structure of the quality reporting program," CMS explains in the rule.

Hospices had until Jan. 31 to report data on a web-based form approved by the Office of Management and Budget, said CMS's Robin Dowell in the Jan. 11 Open Door Forum for home health and hospice providers. The form is available via www.cms.gov/LTCH-IRF-Hospice-Quality-Reporting/10_HospiceQualityReporting.asp -- scroll down to the "Related Links Outside CMS" section.

Starting in 2013, hospices must report one pain management quality measure in addition to the structural QAPI measure. The required quality measure is National Quality Forum Measure #0209, "Percentage of patients who were uncomfortable because of pain on admission to hospice whose pain was brought under control within 48 hours."