In the CY 2022 HH Proposed Rule, CMS is expanding the Home Health Value-Based Purchasing Program (HHVBP) to all 50 states effective January 1, 2022. HHVBP has been one of the few demonstration projects of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovations (CMMI) that actually saved money. With the expected implementation soon approaching, home health agencies (HHAs) should take the time today to understand the HHVBP model design, the proposed CY 2022 performance year outcome measures, and the calculations that CMS will be using to determine whether your agency will be eligible for a bonus or penalty up to 5 percent of your agency’s Medicare FFS revenue.

The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued the CY 2022 Home Health (HH) Prospective Payment Rate proposed rule in the Federal Register last month and all eyes were focused on whether they would propose any rate adjustments based on changes in coding or other behaviors due to the implementation of the Patient-Driven Groupings Model (PDGM). Although CMS suggests that they have overpaid HH up to 6% compared to the prior PPS model, CMS kicked the can ahead again in the 2022 proposed rule.

This powerful new tool gives you intuitive widgets for a bird’s-eye view of performance with drill-downs to more detailed reports. Complete with adjustable widget parameters for a personalized analysis of what’s most important for you. Drag, drop and resize widgets for a fully customizable dashboard experience.

SHP is excited to announce the launch of the next version of our CareStat® solution. CareStat by SHP connects hospitals/ACOs with home health agencies (and soon SNFs) to provide insights into your patients’ outcomes across the care continuum. With CareStat’s new and improved suite of reports and its real-time relevant data, hospitals can impact readmissions, length-of-stay, clinical outcomes, and patient satisfaction.

SHP is excited to announce a valuable new report available in our IntelliLogix solution for skilled nursing facilities. The Unplanned Re-hospitalization Trend Report is a tool designed to help organizations monitor their unplanned re-hospitalization rates by category and over time. We hope these insightful analytics will help facilities to pin-point risk factors and identify the best course of action for improvement.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released their annual Hospice Wage and Payment Rate proposed rule for FY 2022 in the Federal Register on April 14 and there was plenty of updates regarding the HQRP. Many were expected but the one I found noteworthy is the addition of public reporting for a new CAHPS Hospice Survey Star Rating.

Occupancy and staffing are the two main issues facing SNFs today, both exacerbated by the unique effects of COVID-19 this past year. SNFs will need to get creative in solving these issues and adopting the right software and analytics tools will be critical. IntelliLogix™ by SHP can help facilities increase referrals, maximize reimbursement and save valuable time.

SHP is excited to be supporting the National Healthcare at Home 2021 Best Practices and Future Insights Study. Expected to be the most comprehensive study on the delivery of care at home to date, results will include best practices on the topics of staffing, reimbursement, new care delivery models, palliative care, and more. In order for the study to succeed we need your participation!

McKnight’s Long-Term Care News has announced it’s 2021 class of Rising Stars and Veteran VIP award recipients. We applaud all of the women awarded this honor, many of whom are customers of ours.

Effective April 1st 2020, CMS embraced the new ICD-10 code (U07.1) by adding it to the MMTA-Respiratory Clinical Group to reimburse home health agencies for these patients. I was curious to see how the PDGM model aligned specifically to these patients. Read more to see how frequently COVID-19 was utilized as a primary diagnosis code in Medicare PDGM 30-day period starts, and how COVID-19 patients compare to the SHP national database in regards to Comorbidity Adjustments and Functional Impairment. Also a look at Source and Timing attributes of COVID-19 stays, along with case-mix weights, and LUPA rates.