The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the Measures Under Consideration list on December 1, which is a list of quality and efficiency measures CMS is considering adopting through the federal rulemaking process for different levels of care each year. Included in this year’s list are two new process measures for hospices based on the yet-to-be-released HOPE tool and three changes to the current Hospice CAHPS survey.

The Partnership for Quality Measurement will host a Post-Acute Care/Long-Term Care Listening Session regarding these measures on Monday, December 18, at 1 p.m. ET.

Hospice CAHPS Changes

• Sub-measure 1: New measure never reviewed by Measure Applications Partnership (MAP) Workgroup or used in a CMS program.
• Sub-measure 2: Measure currently used in a CMS program, but the measure is undergoing substantial change.
• Sub-measure 3: Measure currently used in a CMS program, but the measure is undergoing substantial change.

The Timely Reassessment of Pain Impact

The measure captures the percent of hospice patient assessments that have a pain reassessment within two days when pain impact was initially assessed as moderate or severe. Data for this measure are collected by hospice clinicians using the HOPE instrument. Symptom impact assessments are administered at fixed timepoints during a hospice election—at admission (ADM) and in conjunction with the first and second interdisciplinary group (IDG) meetings. When pain symptom impact is assessed as moderate or severe, a HOPE Symptom Reassessment (SRA) is to occur within two calendar days of the initial/triggering assessment. For the purposes of this measure, a quality episode is defined as the period from the date of the symptom impact assessment to two calendar days thereafter.

The Timely Reassessment of Non-Pain Symptom Impact

The measure captures the percent of hospice patient assessments that have non-pain symptom(s) reassessment within two days when symptom impact was initially assessed as moderate or severe. Data for this measure are collected by hospice clinicians using the HOPE instrument. Symptom impact assessments are administered at fixed timepoints during a hospice election—ADM and in conjunction with the first and second IDG meetings. When non-pain symptom impact is assessed as moderate or severe, a HOPE SRA is to occur within two calendar days of the initial/triggering assessment. For purposes of this measure, a quality episode is defined as the period from the date of the symptom impact assessment to two calendar days thereafter.