Hurry! Time is running out to send CMS your views on its pending "Discharge to Community" Quality Measure for Home Health Agencies.
This new quality measure WILL be part of future OASIS data collection. But CMS wants input from experienced home health providers like you about how CMS plans to calculate this outcome for CASPER reports and potential display on Home Health Compare. You know the industry. Tell CMS which risk-adjustment variables should affect this outcome, and which records that experience tells you CMS should exclude from the calculations.
For instance, CMS intends to exclude home health patients who had a short-term acute care stay for non-surgical cancer treatment in the past 30 days, and those whose discharge was to hospice, because of their “high mortality rate.” And the proposed definition of “discharge to community” is “discharge to home without home health services” (except when discharged to hospice).
CMS proposes considering risk adjustments that include patient demographics and eligibility, principal diagnoses, surgery and procedures or ICU/CCU days during any short-term stay in the prior 30 days, comorbidities, length of stay, acute hospitalization in the year preceding home health admission, and ADL functional abilities.
Contribute your valuable insights via email to discharge_to_community@rti.org by Dec 8, 2015. Don’t include any PHI. Do specify your name, organization, and contact information. And please specify that your comments address the Draft Specifications for the Discharge to Community Quality Measure for Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNFs), Inpatient Rehabilitation Facilities (IRFs), Long-Term Care Hospitals (LTCHs), and Home Health Agencies (HHAs). Use the entire title (even though it’s ridiculously long).
For more information about other pending quality outcome changes, check the CMS Quality Measures Public Comment Page often.
Be heard!