Quality Outcomes
07/27/2023
Hospices should focus on preventing condition-level survey deficiencies to avoid inclusion in the Special Focus Program (SFP) that CMS is proposing for low-performing hospices in 2024.
07/21/2023
Frontloading is a best practice for reducing hospitalizations and improving patient outcomes, but agencies need to be aware of LUPA issues and the costs that can come with frontloading.
07/13/2023
Functional status is measured through Section GG of OASIS assessments, which evaluates a patient’s capacity to perform daily activities related to self-care (GG0130) and mobility (GG0170). The expected discharge score will incorporate risk-adjustment controls, including admission function score, age and patient clinical characteristics.
06/22/2023
Agencies should create processes with assisted living facilities and other settings so that they understand when to call the agency first to avoid patient hospitalizations that could be prevented.
06/22/2023
In addition to poor communication, language barriers can lead to negative outcomes for both the patient and the agency, including the increased risk of hospitalizations and poor HHCAHPS scores.
06/07/2023
In a surprise to many, only 20% of pilot-state HHVBP agencies received payment adjustments greater than approximately 3% in 2021, with the maximum adjustment in 2021 being approximately 7%. This means that most agencies were not reaching the maximum adjustment, according to the 6th annual HHVBP report.
05/17/2023
Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) not only give agencies better insight into environmental factors that affect patients, but they also provide a better idea of how to best treat patients with optimal care that leads to better outcomes.
04/26/2023
Agencies do not have to submit any additional data under the expanded Home Health Value-Based Purchasing (HHVBP) program.
03/24/2023
A new outcome measure is on the horizon for agencies. It will impact your Care Compare results, and potentially future HHVBP reimbursement.
03/24/2023
Instead of the clinicians, coders are often being asked to assign symptom ratings for M1021/M1022. But they don’t have much to go on except best guesses based on documentation. Inaccurate SCRs lead to an inaccurate reflection of the patient condition, an incomplete or misdirected plan of care and incorrect coding.

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