Hospice Quality Reporting: Annual Payment Update

Heads up, hospice agencies. If you don't currently contract for patient surveys (CAHPS) and submit Hospice Item Set (HIS), watch your snail mail for a notice from CMS. The letter will notify agencies not complying with hospice quality reporting requirements of their future exclusion from future annual percentage updates. Check out reconsideration request information, too.

Here's what CMS states in its 23 June 2016 MLN Connects Provider Enews:

CMS is mailing notifications to hospices that are not in compliance with Hospice Quality Reporting requirements; all notifications will be mailed by June 29. For CY 2015 (FY 2017) and after, CMS considers both Hospice Item Set (HIS) and Hospice CAHPS® survey data from January 1 through December 31 to determine the Annual Payment Update (APU) compliance threshold. If you receive a notice of non-compliance, you have the opportunity to submit a request for reconsideration on quality data submissions affecting your FY 2017 APU. See the instructions in your notification letter and on the Reconsideration Requests webpage.