NHPCO NewsLine Fall 2019 - 10

continued

with managed care, ACOs and new payment models. NHPCO solicited
comments from members and included a robust set of comments
answering this RFI. CMS did not share information in the final rule
about this RFI, but states "as we continue to review the comments
received, we believe that the information gathered under this RFI will
help inform: (1) future CMS payment models; (2) the role of hospice
with respect to ACOs; and (3) our general understanding of the
traditional FFS hospice environment in relation to the increasing
penetration of managed care through the MA program."

Proposed Rule Comments
Members are reminded that in
response to the proposed rule,
NHPCO responded with a
comment letter (PDF), developed
with member feedback and
robust discussion from the
NHPCO Regulatory Committee
and the NHPCO Quality and
Standards Committee.
Watch for more tools and resources from NHPCO to help
implement these new regulatory requirements. Any questions can
be sent to regulatory@nhpco.org or quality@nhpco.org
Resources for the final rule include:
1. FY2020 Hospice Wage Index Final Rule State/County Charts with
Final Rates and calculator tool, available in Reimbursement -
Medicare page of nhpco.org.
2. Free webinar for NHPCO members on final rule, held on Tuesday,
August 6, 2:00pm ET. A recording of the webinar and the webinar
slides can be found on the Reimbursement - Medicare page.
3. Changes to Hospice Regulations at 42 CFR 418 (PDF).
4. Podcast on the FY2020 Hospice Wage Index final rule in two
parts - Part one on the rates, election statement and addendum
was released Tuesday, August 6, check the NHPCO Podcast page.
Part two focused on the changes in quality reporting, CAHPS and
Hospice Compare and was released on August 20.

10

Newsline / Fall 2019

Quality
Reporting
Updates
The FY 2020 Hospice Wage Index
Final Rule includes updates to the
hospice quality reporting program
(HQRP) that providers should be
aware of.

Claims Based Measures
CMS plans to explore the
development of other claimsbased and outcome measures for
the HQRP. They state that claimsbased measures would be only one
type of quality measure in the
HQRP and they will take
comments received by providers
and other stakeholders into
consideration as they continue to
address the high priority areas of
identifying gaps in care and
reducing regulatory burden.

Update on Current ClaimsBased Measure Development
CMS identified two "high priority"
areas that will be addressed by
claims-based measure
development: potentially avoidable
hospice care transitions and access
to levels of hospice care.
■ The potentially avoidable
hospice care transitions concept
was developed as a measure
under consideration called
"Transitions from Hospice Care,
Followed by Death or Acute
Care." The goal of this measure

https://39k5cm1a9u1968hg74aj3x51-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/NHPCO_FY2020_Hospice_Wage_Index_Comment_Letter.pdf https://39k5cm1a9u1968hg74aj3x51-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/NHPCO_FY2020_Hospice_Wage_Index_Comment_Letter.pdf https://www.nhpco.org/regulatory-and-quality/regulatory/billing-reimbursement/reimbursement-medicare-2/ https://www.nhpco.org/regulatory-and-quality/regulatory/billing-reimbursement/reimbursement-medicare-2/ http://www.nhpco.org https://www.nhpco.org/regulatory-and-quality/regulatory/billing-reimbursement/reimbursement-medicare-2/ https://39k5cm1a9u1968hg74aj3x51-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Hospice_RegChange_42-CFR-418.pdf https://www.nhpco.org/resources/nhpco-podcast/

NHPCO NewsLine Fall 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NHPCO NewsLine Fall 2019