October 28 2024
OASIS

CMS Releases New Home Health Reports on Health Equity

by Marian Essey, RN, BSN, COS-C

Note: Health equity is defined as the attainment of the highest level of health for all people where everyone has a fair and just opportunity to access their optimal health regardless of race, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic status, geography, preferred language, or other factors that affect access to care and health outcomes

In the past week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released three reports to assist agencies in understanding their quality of care to advancing health equity.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is working to advance health equity by designing, implementing, and operationalizing policies and programs that support health for all the people served by our programs, eliminating avoidable differences in health outcomes experienced by people who are disadvantaged or underserved, and providing the care and support that our enrollees need to thrive.

The following reports were released on October 15th:

Health-Related Social Needs Indicator Confidential Feedback Report – NEW report
DTC Health Equity Confidential Feedback Report – Newly updated report
MSPB Health Equity Confidential Feedback Reports – Newly updated report

Health-Related Social Needs (HRSN) Indicator Confidential Feedback Report

The new Screen Positive for Health-Related Social Needs (HRSN) Indicator Confidential Feedback Report presents summary information for an agency’s patient population on four HRSN data elements:

Health Literacy
Need for Interpreter Services
Social Isolation
Transportation

Results for this initial report are calculated using data from October 1, 2023 – September 30, 2024, and will be updated quarterly based on the most recent 12 months of available data.

This report is provider-generated in the Internet Quality Improvement & Evaluation System (iQIES). To generate the Fall 2024 Screen Positive for HRSN Indicator Confidential Feedback Report in iQIES:

Log into iQIES at  using your Health Care Quality Information Systems (HCQIS) Access Roles and Profile (HARP) user ID and password. If you do not have a HARP account, you may register for a HARP ID.
From the ‘Reports’ tab, select the option for ‘Find a Report’.
Select the Report Category of ‘Health Equity’ and Report Type of ‘Health-Related Social Need Indicator’.
Displayed for you is a list of reports available for download. Select the ‘Screen Positive for Health-Related Social Need Indicator Report’ link OR the ‘Run Report’ option to view the report.
The reports filter page displays with the specific filter criteria required for this HRSN report: Provider and Date Range.
For the Provider filter, search for up to 25 providers by Provider Name, CMS Certification Number (CCN), or Facility ID and add each provider to the filter selection.
For the Date Range filter, the system defaults to the latest quarter end date available and allows users to select prior quarter end dates. Select the desired End Date Range.
Select the ‘Run Report’ button at the bottom of the page.

More information about this report is available in the following resources:

DTC & MSPB Health Equity Confidential Feedback Reports

The first annual updates to two post-acute care (PAC) Health Equity Confidential Feedback Reports were released:

Discharge to Community (DTC) Health Equity Confidential Feedback Report
Medicare Spending Per Beneficiary (MSPB) Health Equity Confidential Feedback Report.

To locate these updated Fall 2024 Health Equity Confidential Feedback Reports in iQIES, please follow the instructions listed below:

Log into iQIES using your Health Care Quality Information Systems (HCQIS) Access Roles and Profile (HARP) user ID and password. If you do not have a HARP account, you may register for a HARP ID.
From the Reports menu, select My Reports.
From the My Reports page, locate and select the Health Equity Confidential Feedback Reports folder link.
Displayed for you is a list of reports available for download.
Select the report name link to view the Health Equity Confidential Feedback Report data

Information on how these measure results were calculated is available in the Health Equity Confidential Feedback Reports Fact Sheet.