The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service’s (CMS) posted the FY2017 Hospice Wage Index final rule on August 5, 2016 with updates to quality reporting for hospice providers that will be effective in 2017.
The FY2017 Hospice Wage Index final rule will bring some new and interesting changes to Medicare hospice quality reporting. While there will be no changes to the seven hospice item set (HIS) measures, CMS confirmed that two new quality process measures will be implemented in 2017. The two new measures include:
1. Hospice Visits When Death is Imminent
This is a process measure pair that assesses hospice team member visits to patients and their family in the last week of life. The first measure of the pair assesses the percentage of patients who received at least one visit from either/and a registered nurse, physician, nurse practitioner, or physician assistant in the last three days of life for the purpose of case management and clinical care provision. The second measure of the pair assesses the percentage of patients who received at least two visits from either/and a medical social worker, chaplain or spiritual counselor, licensed practical nurse, or hospice aide in the last seven days of life. This second measure in the pair allows providers flexibility to provide care that is individualized for the patient/ family’s preference and measurable goals of care. The process measure pair data will be collected as four new items on the HIS discharge record beginning April 1, 2017.
2. Hospice and Palliative Care Composite Process Measure
This quality process measure uses the current seven HIS measures as its components and calculates the percentage of patients for whom HIS admission records contain data on all seven HIS quality measures. The individual component of the composite measure is assessed separately for each patient and is then aggregated into one score for each hospice.
Final Reminders for Hospice Providers:
- Providers who do not submit data to CMS per regulatory requirements will be subject to a two percentage point reduction to the market basket percentage increase for that fiscal year. This includes failure to report HIS data and/or CAHPS data.
- CMS confirmed the following compliance thresholds for the submission of HIS records in the final rule:
- January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2016 - 70 % of all required HIS records must be submitted within the 30 day submission timeframe or 2% deduction will impact FY2018 payment
- January 1, 2017 to December 31, 2017 - 80 % of all required HIS records must be submitted within the 30 day submission timeframe or 2% deduction will impact FY2019 payment
- January 1, 2018 to December 31, 2018 - 90 % of all required HIS records must be submitted within the 30 day submission timeframe or 2% deduction will impact FY2020 payment
Members of NHPCO will find a comprehensive Regulatory Alert looking at the Final Rule available online.
By Jennifer Kennedy, MA, BSN, RN, CHC
NHPCO Senior Director, Regulatory and Quality
The American Hospital Association’s
Physician Leadership Forum and Hospitals in Pursuit of Excellence initiative has
released a compendium to help hospitals, in partnership with their clinical
staff and patients, to closely examine the appropriate use of medical resources
for five hospital-based procedures or interventions.
The compendium offers a toolkit on each
of the five areas: blood management, antimicrobial stewardship,
ambulatory care sensitive conditions, elective percutaneous coronary
intervention, and aligning treatment with patient priorities for use of the
ICU.
The toolkits are an outgrowth of the
AHA white paper, “Appropriate Use of Medical Resources,” which recommends a way forward that will place
hospitals at the forefront of innovative change for reducing the use of
specific non-beneficial services while improving health care overall.
AHA collaborated with a broad group of
national organizations and content experts that included National Hospice and
Palliative Care Organization to produce each toolkit.
The new compendium is available at www.aha.org/appropriateuse.
Communications with children and families is the theme of the new edition of the pediatric e-journal produced by NHPCO's Children's Project on Hospice/Palliative Services. This resource is available free of charge online.
These articles included in this edition of the e-journal offer suggestions for and examples of engaging in this important aspect of providing pediatric palliative/hospice care.
In the introduction, the e-journal editors write, "We appreciate that a single issue on this subject will not do complete justice to this very broad subject area, but we hope that the articles in this issue will spur increased awareness and discussion of this subject and we note that all communication is a cooperative enterprise with children, adolescents, their family members, the professionals, the volunteers, and the organizations involved in their care. We welcome communications from anyone who has more to offer on these subjects."
Download the PDF.
An archive of past editions of the pediatric hospice and palliative care e-journal is available also.
"Living and dying in pain: It doesn’t have to happen" is the theme of World Hospice and Palliative Care Day being celebrated on Saturday, October 8, 2016.
World Hospice and Palliative Care Day is a unified day of action to celebrate and support hospice and palliative care around the world. This year, World Hospice and Palliative Care Day theme tackles the critical issue of access to essential medicines for pain management and palliative care worldwide, and resonates with the advocacy work being done in the lead up to – and beyond – the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on the World Drug Problem.
According to the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), 75% of the world’s population (5.5 billion people) does not have adequate access to controlled medications for pain relief.
As a result, millions of people suffer from pain which is avoidable and could be managed with proper access to the correct medications. Various barriers prevent people in need from accessing these essential medications. This year’s World Hospice and Palliative Care Day campaign will focus on three major barriers for access to pain relief:
- overly restrictive national regulations
- poor education of healthcare providers in relation to opioid medications; and
- economic barriers to availability of these medications.
Between the launch of the theme and World Hospice and Palliative Care Day itself, the WHPCA will provide case studies, advocacy resources, and examples of good practice to help you address these issues in your country and region.
You can find out more and access the Key Messages for this year on the World Hospice and Palliative Care Day webpage. Follow World Hospice and Palliative Care Day on the WHPCA Facebook page, as well as on Twitter. Join the conversation using the Twitter hashtag #WHPCDay16.
