by Kerry Termine, DPT, HCS-D, COS-C
The Home Health (HH) Calendar Year (CY) 2024 Final Rule finalized two major updates that will impact functional measures in the HH Quality Reporting Program (QRP).
When will this impact Public Reporting?
As finalized in the Home Health (HH) Calendar Year (CY) 2024 Final Rule, we note some quality measure changes related to the HH Quality Reporting Program (QRP). Specifically, we will see:
- The addition of the Discharge Function Score measure, which will first be publicly reported on Care Compare in January 2025 with April 2023 – March 2024 data.
- The removal of the Application of Functional Assessment and Care Plan that Addresses Function measure with the January 2025 Care Compare refresh.
When will this impact an agency’s reports?
HH Providers can expect these measure changes to coincide with the following changes on their quality measure reports:
- October 2024 Provider Preview Reports will include the Discharge Function Score measure (and no longer report data on the Application of Functional Assessment and Care Plan that Addresses Function measure).
Why are these changes happening?
As explained in the HH CY 2024 Final Rule, CMS is removing the Application of Functional Assessment and Care Plan that Addresses Function measure for two reasons. First, this process measure has topped out. Meaning, CMS identified that performance on this measure was so high and unvarying that distinction in measure improvement could no longer be made.
Second, the Discharge Function Score measure was better connected to patient functional outcomes.
For additional information, on these measure changes the final rule can be downloaded from the Federal Register the Federal Register website.
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