Hospice
03/27/2025
Ensure your hospice agency is prepared to roll out the updated version of the CAHPS Hospice survey in April. Organizations that establish staff understanding of the modified assessment and its distribution could see a boost in both response rates and patient satisfaction scores.
03/27/2025
CMS breaks down the survey calendar for the web-mail mode in the CAHPS Hospice Survey Quality Assurance Guidelines, updated earlier this month to reflect the changes to the survey effective April 1.
03/13/2025
Educate your hospice staff on monitoring symptoms that could indicate a patient is nearing the end of life. Agencies that manage these symptoms early and take the time to prepare and comfort caregivers and families for the transition could see these successes reflected in their CAHPS Hospice survey scores.
03/06/2025
Evaluate how new requirements under the Hospice Outcomes and Patient Evaluation (HOPE) tool will impact your staff’s workflow, as agencies that are unprepared for the changes could face inefficiencies, care delays and payment reductions.
02/20/2025
Make sure hospice care plans and aide instructions are current, appropriate and applicable, as both care plans and aides are among the top survey citations for 2024. 
01/23/2025
Encourage your clinicians to communicate openly about patients’ disease process and end of life to improve survey scores, ease transitions and provide strong support for high-acuity patients and their caregivers.
12/05/2024
Stress frequent and consistent documentation to staff as CMS is encouraging surveyors to search for possible fraud through the hospice survey process.
12/05/2024
Improvement in patient functionality leading to successful community discharge has long been a hallmark of quality home health care.  Now, with the expansion of the Home Health Value Based Purchasing model, agencies need to carefully consider how effectively they facilitate hospice transitions for patients with long term chronic illnesses.
10/31/2024
Review your past survey citations to prepare for the start of CMS’ hospice Special Focus Program (SFP), especially if your hospice agency has struggled to maintain regulatory compliance and high Star Ratings in the past three years.
10/31/2024
Explore how CMS will select hospices for participation in the Special Focus Program based on an algorithm that uses information from surveys and the Hospice Quality Reporting Program (HQRP).

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