Home health quality data has been refreshed on CMS Home Health Compare (data updated Jan 23, 2020) as follows:
Quality of patient care measures:
- Managing daily activities (3 measures) – reporting data for 4/1/18-3/31/19
- How often patients got better at walking or moving around
- How often patients got better at getting in and out of bed
- How often patients got better at bathing
- Managing pain and treating symptoms (4 measures) – reporting data for 4/1/18-3/31/19
- How often patients had less pain when moving around
- How often patients’ breathing improved
- How often patients’ wounds improved or healed after an operation
- *How often patients developed new or worsened pressure ulcers (Note: *After October 2019, this measure no longer reflects updated data)
- Preventing harm (8 measures) – reporting data for 4/1/18-3/31/19
- How often the home health team taught patients (or their family caregivers) about their drugs
- How often patients got better at taking their drugs correctly by mouth
- How often the home health team checked patients’ risk of falling
- How often the home health team checked patients for depression
- How often the home health team made sure that their patients have received a flu shot for the current flu season
- How often the home health team made sure that their patients have received a pneumococcal vaccine (pneumonia shot)
- For patients with diabetes, how often the home health team got doctor’s orders, gave foot care, and taught patients about foot care
- How often the home health team checked patients’ medications and got doctor’s orders for medication issues in a timely manner
(Note: The measure ‘How often the home health team began their patients’ care in a timely manner’ was not included in this update)
4. Preventing unplanned hospital care (4 measures) – reporting data as follows:
- How often home health patients had to be admitted to the hospital (1/1/18-12/31/18)
- How often patients receiving home health care needed any urgent, unplanned care in the hospital emergency room – without being admitted to the hospital (1/1/18-12/31/18)
- How often patients remained at home within 31 days of being discharged from home health(2/1/17-12/31/2018)
- How often patients were re-admitted to the hospital for a potentially-preventable condition after discharge from home health(1/1/16-12/31/2018)
(Note: as of this refresh, CMS is no longer publicly reporting two claims-based measures: Emergency Department Use without Hospital Readmission during the First 30 Days of HH (NQF #2505) and Rehospitalization during the First 30 Days of Home Health (NQF #2380).
5. Payment and value of care (1 measure)
- How much Medicare spends on an episode of care at this agency, compared to Medicare spending across all agencies nationally (1/1/18-12/31/18)
6. Patient survey results (5 measures) reporting data for 7/1/18-6/30/19
- How often the home health team gave care in a professional way
- How well did the home health team communicate with patients
- Did the home health team discuss medicines, pain, and home safety with patients
- How do patients rate the overall care from the home health agency
- Would patients recommend the home health agency to friends and family .
Read more:
- CMS Home Health Compare – https://www.medicare.gov/homehealthcompare/search.html
