In a letter November 24 to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Oz, LeadingAge, along with the National Alliance for Care at Home (the Alliance) and the National Partnership for Healthcare and Hospice Innovation (NPHI), requested that CMS waive the Hospice Outcomes and Patient Evaluation (HOPE) timeliness submission requirement for the first quarter post-implementation. The letter argues that simultaneous launch of the HOPE tool and migration to iQIES coincided with the first day of the government shutdown, which led to reduced Help Desk responses to fatal errors and rejections, configuration issues beyond providers’ control, and absence of real-time problem resolution.
The consequences of adverse outcomes cannot be understated. The failure to comply with requirements of the Hospice Quality Reporting Program to submit 90% of patient records carries a 4% annual payment update reduction risk. Negative financial consequences for hospice providers is largely dependent this quarter not only on the success of two transitions—iQIES and HOPE—that are not within their control, but also during a uniquely challenging government shutdown. LeadingAge has repeatedly advocated for waiving the 90% reporting threshold during the transition to HOPE. The impact of the government shutdown only exacerbates hospices’ compliance risks.
