Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP
Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare
On Wednesday, May 12, 2021 the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) hosted the Spring 2021 HQRP Forum to provide information on the Hospice Outcomes & Patient Evaluation, or HOPE. Materials from this HQRP Forum, including a recording of the presentation, are now available in the Downloads section of the Provider and Stakeholder Engagement page at: https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments/Hospice-Quality-Reporting/Hospice-QRP-Provider-Engagement-Opportunities or directly via https://www.cms.gov/files/zip/2021may12hqrp-forum-materials.zip.
You’ll find these materials:
The May 2021 update is now available on Care Compare, the streamlined redesign of eight former CMS healthcare compare tools on Medicare.gov, including Hospice Compare. We made several changes. First, data derived from the Post-Acute Care and Hospice Provider Utilization and Payment Public Use File (PUF) have been updated to include calendar year 2018 data. Furthermore, additional data elements from the PUF file have been added to inform users whether a hospice provided service to any Medicare Advantage patients, or patients with both Medicaid and Medicare coverage. Please visit the Public Reporting: Background and Announcements page to view a newly issued Fact Sheet and Question and Answer document. These resources provide an overview of the PUF information on hospices publicly reported by the HQRP.
In addition, Care Compare visitors can now use a new a link to the FY2021 Annual Payment Update Compliance File to identify hospices which have been compliant with HQRP requirements in their area. This file is already publicly available on the HQRP Requirements page. As an integral part of Care Compare, it will now be more accessible to consumers and thus help inform their decisions.
Finally, as of May 2021, we also updated the claims-based zip codes using CY 2019 Medicare claims data. This routine annual update ensures that the Care Compare search engine continues to provide accurate and up-to-date hospice information to consumers. Hospice Item Set zip code data continue to come from January-December 2019 Hospice Item Set records.
Please note that all Hospice Item Set and CAHPS measures remain frozen due to the temporary exemption to the HQRP data submission requirements in responding to the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE). For additional information on COVID-19 PHE data exemption, please see the Hospice COVID-19 Public Reporting Tip Sheet in the Downloads section of the HQRP Requirements and Best Practices webpage. For more information about public reporting, please see the Public Reporting: Key Dates for Providers webpage.
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