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CMS Proposes Changes to Quality of Patient Care Star Ratings for Home Health Agencies

On a June 27th call, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recommended two changes to the Quality of Patient Care (QoPC) Star Ratings and provided their rationale, impact analysis, and timeline recommendations for the changes.

CMS recommends the removal of the Drug Education on All Medications Provided to Patient/Caregiver measure. This process measure has improved to the point of exhibiting very little variation across home health agencies. CMS contends that while this improvement is beneficial in terms of home health quality, it can no longer be used to distinguish performance differences across agencies, and the lack of variation affects CMS’s ability to calculate the QoPC Star Ratings.

In its place, CMS recommends adding an OASIS-based outcome measure to the QoPC Star Ratings: Improvement in the Management of Oral Medications. In its presentation, CMS stated that this measure has been publicly reported on Home Health Compare since 2003, addresses an important home health care goal, is case mix-adjusted using patient characteristics, and exhibits good statistical properties. If CMS were to proceed with these recommended modifications, the first QoPC Star Rating preview report would be sent to agencies through their CASPER mailboxes, using the new algorithm, starting in January 2019. Moving forward, these two recommended changes would be effective for the April 2019 Home Health Compare refresh.

The deadline for public comment is July 26th. All comments should be submitted to HH_QM_comment@abtassoc.com. The comment summary will be posted publicly in early September. Based on those comments, a decision will be made and summarized during a second stakeholder webinar planned for October 2018.

For the slides, audio transcript, and recording of the call, click here. If you have questions or concerns with the proposed changes, please contact LeadingAge NY so that we can provide necessary comment.

Contact: Meg Everett, meverett@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8871