The Center for Clinical Standards and Quality, a CMS department, will host a Special Open Door Forum to allow hospices and other interested parties to ask questions on the development of a Hospice Assessment Tool. This SODF is part of a series of regular SODFs [that] CMS plans to host on this tool and other key topics related to the Hospice Quality Reporting Program.
by Elizabeth Hogue, esq.
Be sure to catch Elizabeth Hogue’s June 20 webinar, “How to Establish Essential Preferred Provider Relationships” 1:00-2:30 EDT.
Casamba, a provider of electronic medical record (EMR) solutions for outpatient therapy, home health agencies, skilled nursing facilities and contract therapy providers, announced the launch of Casamba Analytics during its May 30 customer conference in Las Vegas. [The author provides details about this new product’s availability to Casamba Skilled customers and the advantages of transparency that it provides as well as delivering quick access to critical information about a user’s business including revenues, margins, labor and functional outcomes, and cost per incremental outcomes. Details on how the product was developed are provided.]
CMS News: Hospice Compare and PACE Improvement
June 4, 2019, 2:30 – 3:30 pm ET
This webinar will feature overviews of:
- Accountable Care Organizations 2019
- National Training Program Workshops Registration is required to attend.
Visit the CMS learning management system And log in to enroll. Upon registration, you’ll receive an email and appointment.
May 2019 —
Hospice Compare Refresh of Quality Data Now Available
[as of May 2019]
For more information please see the “Hospice Compare May 2019 Refresh Fact Sheet” and the “Hospice Compare May 2019 Refresh Question & Answer” document in the Downloads section of the Public Reporting: Background and Announcements webpage. Visit Hospice Compare to view the data.
Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) Final Rule
This offering will provide information on providing seamless, customized care to meet individual patients’ needs. Of note: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized a rule today to update and modernize requirements for the Programs of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE). This article provides details on how the program provides comprehensive medical and social services to certain frail, elderly individuals who qualify for it.
Status of the Current PACE Program
More than 45,000 older adults are currently enrolled in more than 100 PACE organizations in 31 states, and enrollment in PACE has increased by over 120 percent since 2011. This final rule is the first major update to the program since 2006 and reflects changes to best practices in caring for frail and elderly individuals, informed by stakeholder input and our experiences in administering the program.
Overview of the Final Rule for PACE
The final rule removes redundancies and eliminates outdated information, which will reduce administrative burden on PACE organizations, and allow clinicians and other care providers to focus more of their time on patients and less time on paperwork.ue to meet the specific needs and preferences of their patients.
The rule also finalizes important patient protections, including:
- Clarifying that PACE organizations offering qualified prescription drug coverage must comply with Medicare Part D prescription drug program requirements unless the requirement has been waived;
- Implementing changes related to PACE enforcement actions, including sanctions and civil money penalties, to strengthen CMS’ ability to hold PACE organizations accountable and protect individuals enrolled in PACE from harm;
- Increasing transparency and simplifying the regulations for PACE organizations – changes that will help clarify enrollment policies and requirements for quality improvement; and
- Adding language to help ensure that individuals with a conviction for a criminal offence relating to physical, sexual or drug or alcohol abuse or use will not be employed by a PACE organization in any capacity where their contact with patients would pose a potential risk.
To view the final rule (CMS-4168-F), please visit: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/06/03/2019-11087/medicare-and-medicaid-programs-programs-of-all-inclusive-care-for-the-elderly
For a fact sheet on the final rule, please visit: https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/programs-all-inclusive-care-elderly-pace-final-rule-cms-4168-f
©2019 by Rowan Consulting Associates, Inc., Colorado Springs, CO. All rights reserved. This article was reprinted in Tim Rowan’s Home Care Technology Report from a CMS news release. homecaretechreport.com Further reproduction is encouraged. editor@homecaretechreport.com
by Kristin Donar
The upcoming Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM), scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2020, will drastically alter the way home health organizations of all sizes manage operations. Among the several reasons is CMS’s decision to anticipate that providers will change behaviors in order to keep payments high and cut payments 6.42 percent in order to mitigate that assumed behavior. If providers do not change behaviors to boost payments, they stand to lose that 6.42%, or more than $1 billion across the industry, once PDGM takes effect. (more…)
— National Training Program Monthly Update Webinar
— May 2019 Hospice Compare refresh of quality data is now available; now includes additional information on hospice characteristics to complement existing quality and patient experience metrics.
— Final rule removes redundancy, reduces administrative burden on PACE providers. (more…)
The following is a statement from the Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services regarding a dispute between OIG and EHS Home Health Care Service, Inc. of Oakbrook, Illinois over a finding of overpayments.
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