Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP
Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare
Today (July 27, 2022), the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a final rule (CMS-1773-F).
For the Hospice Quality Reporting Program, the final rule provides an update on the development of a patient assessment instrument, titled Hospice Outcomes and Patient Evaluation (HOPE). This includes an update on the beta testing and derivatives that will be achieved during this phase of testing, such as burden estimates and timepoints for collection, as well as additional outreach efforts that will be conducted during and after beta testing and during our planned adoption process. CMS also discusses potential future quality measures within the HQRP based on HOPE and administrative data, including HOPE-based process measures and hybrid quality measures, which could be based upon multiple sources that include HOPE, claims and other data sources. CMS appreciates the public comments we received on these updates.
This rule provides an update on testing conducted for the CAHPS Hospice Survey, which is used to collect data on experiences of hospice care from primary caregivers of hospice patients. In particular, CMS is providing an update on a survey-mode experiment whose goal was to test the effect of adding a web-based mode to the CAHPS Hospice Survey.
In this final rule, we note our appreciation of public comments we received on our request for information on a number of questions related to improving health equity in hospices and on a potential future structural measure under consideration for the HQRP. Public input is very valuable for the continuing development of CMS’ health equity quality measurement efforts and broader commitment to health equity; a key pillar of our strategic vision as further described here, https://www.cms.gov/files/document/health-equity-fact-sheet.pdf.
The final rule displayed on July 27, 2022 at the Federal Register’s Public Inspection Desk and will be available under “Special Filings,” at https://www.federalregister.gov/public-inspection.
For further information, see the hospice webpage here: https://www.cms.gov/Center/Provider-Type/Hospice-Center.
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