Important Regulatory Updates from CMS
Review of July 9 Home Health and Hospice Open Door Forum
Please note that these notes are provided for your convenience. Providers must be responsible for confirming all deadlines and instructions on the CMS Website.
HHCAHPS
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Three important updates scheduled for July 18
- Home Health Compare will display refreshed data from December 2012 on the Website at: http://www.medicare.gov/. Providers can preview their data now on the HHCAHPS Website at: https://homehealthcahps.org
- The patient mix adjustment factors will be recalculated on July 18
- Data submission deadline for first quarter calendar year 2013 is July 18. Providers should be checking with their vendors to make sure the data is submitted on time.
- As a reminder to new HHCAHPS participants, agencies must authorize their survey vendors through the HHCAHPS Website. Vendors cannot submit data without permission.
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If providers have any questions about the HHCAHPS process they can use the following email addresses:
- For agency/vendor information: HHCAHPS@RTI.ORG
- CMS Mailbox at HomeHealthCAHPS@cms.hhs.gov
Hospice Quality
- The next deadline for hospice quality reporting will be April 1, 2014. Hospice providers will be required to submit data for the NQF 0209 Pain Measure and the Structural Measure.
- Hospices should be currently collecting data until December 26, 2013.
Home Health Quality
- The home health quality page has recently been updated with the following materials:
- The technical specifications for the Process Quality Measures have been revised, and are available to in the Download section here.
- The technical specifications for OASIS Based Patient Outcome Measures were revised and are available in the Download section here.
- A new errata sheet has been added to the Downloads section, indicating updates to the December 2012 OASIS-C Guidance Manual. It can be accessed here.