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.
Hospice providers should note that CMS has resumed the provider enrollment revalidation process along with some other provider enrollment processes that were temporarily suspended during a portion of the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency. See previous NAHC Report coverage here and the September 2, 2021 MLN Connects newsletter.
UPDATES
Hospices will see the resumption of public reporting of quality data with the February 2022 Care Compare refresh. Provider preview reports for this refresh can now be accessed via the Certification and Survey Provider Enhanced Reports (CASPER) application. These reports preview data that will be displayed in the Care Compare website in February 2022. The Hospice Item Set (HIS) measure scores are based on fewer than the standard number of quarters due to data exemptions in response to the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE), and the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) Hospice Survey measure scores exclude Quarter 1 and Quarter 2 of calendar year 2020 (but still include eight quarters).
The Provider Preview Reports remain in CASPER for 60 days only so hospices are encouraged to save a copy of their preview reports for later reference.
Learn more about HIS Provider Preview Reports here and about the CAHPS Preview Reports here. Hospice QRP Key Dates for Providers can be found here.
CMS notified hospices that the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) Hospice Survey Star Rating will be available to the public on Care Compare in August 2022. (See previous NAHC Report coverage here). Hospices will first see their star ratings on the preview reports for February this month (November 2021) and also available in the May 2022 provider preview reports. CMS is considering this the “dry run” period. The star rating will not be publicly reported during this period.
Hospices will see the star rating for each of the eight CAHPS measures in the preview reports but only the summary star will appear on Care Compare. CAHPS Hospice Survey Provider Preview Reports include both quality measure scores and Star Ratings. Again, CAHPS Hospice Survey Star Ratings will not be publicly reported until August 2022.
CMS shared that it is planning an upcoming HQRP Forum which will include CAHPS information.
- Thursday, December 16, 2021
- 2:30 PM – 3:30 PM Eastern
Hospices should mark this on their calendars and stay tuned to NAHC Report for more information. We will provide an update when CMS releases registration information.
Hospices had questions about the CAHPS Star Rating including, in particular, the methodology for calculating the star rating. A CMS slide deck providing an overview of the star rating inclusive of the methodology is available here. Additional information pertaining to the star rating is available here.
Resources for the HQRP and CAHPS Hospice Survey Star Rating are available on the HQRP webpage and the CAHPS Hospice Survey webpage.
In other HQRP news, CMS responded to a question about the timing of the transition to the iQIES system stating that this transition is not scheduled to occur in 2022.