OASIS Alert

Take care with hospital discharges.

Rehospitalization rates have been in Medicare’s crosshairs for some time. And recent proposals show you won’t be getting a break in this quality area anytime soon.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services wants to add two new quality measures for home health agencies — “Rehospitalization during the first 30 days of HH” and “Emergency Department Use without Hospital Readmission during the first 30 days of HH.”

CMS would apply the measures to patients who had an acute inpatient hospitalization in the five days before the start of a HH stay. CMS would base both measures on claims, not self-reported data, it says in the home health prospective payment system proposed rule published in the July 3 Federal Register.

Recently hospitalized patients are at an increased risk of hospital use, CMS notes in the rule. “Addressing unplanned hospital readmissions is a high priority for HHS as our focus continues on promoting patient safety, eliminating healthcare associated infections, improving care transitions, and reducing the cost of healthcare,” the agency says. “Rates of rehospitalization remain substantial with 14.4 percent of HH patients experiencing an unplanned rehospitalization in the first 30 days of care.”