Courtesy of the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC)

During the most recent Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Home Health, Hospice, and DME (Durable Medicare Equipment) Open Door Forum (ODF), the following information and updates were provided for home health providers.

OASIS Updates

The quarterly Outcome and Assessment Information Set (OASIS) Q&As are now available here. The draft OASIS-E guidance manual and OASIS-E data specifications are expected to be posted in early summer.

Public Reporting

Preview Reports and Star Rating Preview Reports for the July 2022 Care Compare refresh are available in iQIES. Instructions for accessing the reports can be found in the March 25, 2022, update here, and any questions about access should be directed to the iQIES Help Desk by phone at (800) 339-9313 or by email at iQIES@cms.hhs.gov.

CMS also reminded home health agencies that it had previously identified an issue in the iQIES system that may have affected a provider's "Services Provided" values that are displayed on the Preview reports that were distributed in iQIES on February 23, 2022. CMS asked providers to review the "Services Provided" information on the Preview Reports for the April 2022 refresh and contact their OASIS Education Coordinator (OEC) or OASIS Automation Coordinator, should inaccuracies be identified. The process to collect and maintain the "Services Provided" information recently migrated into iQIES and CMS is addressing the issues identified. To allow time to complete the identified changes, CMS decided for the April 2022 refresh to publish the same "Services Provided" data for each home health agency that was posted on Care Compare for the January 2022 refresh. CMS is still urging providers to carefully review the "Services Provided" data within the Preview Reports released on February 23. If the values are incorrect for your agency, please contact your State Automation or State OEC and request an update of your Services Provided data in iQIES.Should you have questions, please contact the iQIES Help Desk by phone at (800) 339-9313 or by email at iQIES@cms.hhs.gov. CMS continues to work to refine and rectify the update process moving forward.

Home Health CAHPS

CMS shared that the recording of the Home Health Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) update training conducted at the end of January 2022 is available. The agenda for the training and the slides are available for download here, and the full recording of the training can be obtained by sending an email requesting it to hhcahps@rti.org.

The CY2024 annual payment update period began on April 1, 2022. Home health agencies are required to provide data for April 2022 through March 2023 to meet compliance requirements and avoid the APU penalty. Those providers that believe they are exempt from CAHPS because they are a small agency, specifically having had 59 or fewer patients from the period of April 2021 through March 2022, need to complete the Participation Exemption Request Form for the annual payment update for calendar year 2024.

The HHCAHPS Coordination Team Quarterly Review newsletter is now available here.

Home Health Value-Based Purchasing Expansion Update

The April 2022 Expanded Home Health Value-Based Purchasing Model (HHVBP) newsletter is now available here. Education materials will be located on the expanded model webpage and some items will be located in iQIES. Benchmark and achievement thresholds are expected to be posted in iQIES in mid-May. Providers should expect a guide to be posted and updated materials for two composite measures and podcasts and videos related to home health, in general, to be posted. A sample interim performance report and final report will be available in iQIES with a webinar to be held in August to discuss the reports. CMS encouraged providers to sign up for newsletters via the HHVBP webpage to know when these materials are available. Questions can be submitted to the help desk at HHVBPquestions@lewin.com.