Last January, 2016, the CMS Innovation Center launched the Home Health Value Based Purchasing (HHVBPM) aka VBP Model in the following nine states:

• Arizona
• Florida
• Iowa
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• Nebraska
• North Carolina
• Tennessee
• Washington

This is part of a larger movement across the healthcare system in the US. CMS, as well as other payors want payment tied more closely to the quality of care delivered.  CMS wants to reward those Medicare certified agencies that perform well on select quality measures. The belief is that those agencies that perform well under VBP will have an increase in revenue and those agencies that cannot perform well with the identified quality measures will be penalized by shrinking margins. The maximum payment adjustments are planned as follows:

• 3% upward or downward in 2018
• 5% upward or downward in 2019
• 6% upward or downward in 2020
• 7% upward or downward in 2021and
• 8% upward or downward in 2022

CMS expects to expand the VBP model to other states in the future. There were originally 24 quality measures proposed for review, however in June, 2016, CMS proposed dropping four of those measures.  Using data from OASIS, Medicare claims, HHCAHPS surveys, and other reported data, agencies will be evaluated quarterly receiving reports on their performance compared to their baseline in previous quarters as well as how their performance stands up against other agencies within their state. There are nine quality outcome measures used to determine payment awards:

• Improvement in Ambulation
• Improvement in Dyspnea
• Improvement in Bed Transferring
• Improvement in Bathing
• Improvement in pain interfering with activity
• Improvement in Oral Medication Management
• Emergency department use without hospitalization
• Acute Care Hospitalization
• Discharge to the Community

There are three quality process measures used to determine payment awards:

• Influenza immunization received
• Pneumococcal vaccine received
• Medication education

There are five consumer outcome measures used to determine payment awards

• Care of patients
• Specific Care issues
• Communication between the patient and the care provider
• Patient willingness to recommend the provider of care
• Patient’s overall rating

There are three new additional measures used to determine payment awards:

• Influenza vaccination for provider’s home health personnel
• Herpes zoster vaccination for provider’s home health personnel
• Advanced care planning

Using the above measures, agencies will receive an “achievement score” that compares an agency to peer agencies and an “improvement score” that compares the agency with their baseline year. For each process and outcome measure, those two scores will be calculated and the higher of the two scores will count toward the agency’s overall “Total Performance Score (TPS).”  The three new measures count toward 10% of the total score. What can your agency do to positively impact the agency’s score?

• Your agency must become educated in the HHVBP model and the measures.
• Industry experts believe CMS will implement this nationwide sooner than anticipated. Look at each item and hone in on 1-2 items at a time. Consider focusing on the process measures, as they are seen to be easier to affect change.
• If you are a high performing agency, then more opportunity may exist with achievement scores.
• If your agency has consistently struggled, focus on the improvement scores.
• Conduct a gap analysis as to clinician understanding of each OASIS and HHCAHP item.
• Provide OASIS education specifics. Hone in on SOC opportunities for assessment evaluation.
• Provide clinician education regarding HHCAHPS and the questions that will impact your agency.
• Be certain your agency’s software has the capability to assist in analysis of clinical documentation analytics and reporting regarding OASIS and Claims data.

Don’t wait, if you are an agency in one of the 41 states not yet officially affected. VBP is here to stay. Payors other than CMS are also looking at patient outcomes by diagnoses and using that factor as a guide as to whether or not they wish to contract with a provider. For a small Medicare certified agency, a 3% reduction in payment will be painful and a 5% reduction could be unsustainable. You need to be active in VBP education NOW! You may need to designate a position only for data analytics. You need to have strong partners whether in your EMR, your coding and document review, or in analyzing and providing the best plan of care for the patient in order to meet the VBP outcome level goals. Consider Select Data as a partner in achieving the best patient plan of care for the diagnoses to be coded and the goals needed to achieve those high quality goals and succeed with the CMS quality measures. Call Select Data at 1.800.332.0555 for more information. Select Data is committed to a strong compliance program that includes educating all personnel on mitigating HIPAA breaches. For more information about Select Data and their commitment to quality in Home Health and Hospice, call 1.800. 332.0555. Click here to contact us.

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