Posted on Thursday, June 28, 2018 2:08 PM
On Wednesday, June 27th, CMS hosted a webinar on proposed Modifications to the Quality of Patient Care Star Rating Algorithm for Home Health Agencies.
Two recommended Modifications to the QoPC Star Ratings were reviewed. The first was the removal of the “Drug Education on All Medications Provided to Patient/Caregiver” from the QoPC Star Ratings measure. According to CMS data, improvement in this measure has reached the point where most agencies are performing perfectly or very close to perfectly and does not distinguish performance differences across agencies.
The second proposed modification is to add the measure “Improvement in Management of Oral Medications” to the QoPC Star Ratings. According to CMS this measure exhibits good statistical properties and addresses an important home health goal.
The HH industry continues to struggle to improve management of oral medications for some patients. It is important to assess the patient’s ability(not the caregivers) to set up their medication planner accurately, whether they need reminders to take oral medications, and their actual ability to take the oral medication themselves. All of these factors impact how clinicians should answer this OASIS item.
The public comment period will begin today and continue through July 26, 2018. Comments can be submitted to HH_QM_Comment@abtassoc.com. Following the comment period, a second webinar will be planned for October. If CMS proceeds with the recommended modifications the changes would be effective in April of 2019.
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