November 28 2025
OASIS Answers
Categories: HHQRP

Now Available: The CMS CY 2026 Home Health Final Rule

by Lori A Marmon, MBA, PT, COS-C

HHQRP and HHVBP Updates Agencies Need to Know for 2026

The Calendar Year (CY) 2026 Home Health Prospective Payment System (HH PPS) Rate Update final rule was issued on November 28, 2025. This final rule includes, among other things, updates for HHAs related to Home Health Quality Reporting Program (HHQRP) and Home Health Value-Based Purchasing (HHVBP) Model requirements.

HHQRP Changes in CY 2026

Highlights for the HHQRP from the CY 2026 Final Rule include:

Removal of the COVID-19 Measure & eventual retirement of O0350
- The COVID-19 Vaccine: Percentage of Patients Who Are Up to Date will be removed from the HHQRP as well as the corresponding OASIS data item, O0350 – Patient’s COVID-19 Vaccination is Up to Date will be removed from the OASIS data set as of April 1, 2026.
- Please note that as of the date of posting of the rule, since O0350 cannot yet be removed from OASIS, HHAs may submit any valid response (0—No, 1—Yes or dash) on a Transfer, Death at home or Discharge OASIS, without any future quality measure implications.
Removal of Additional OASIS items
- Four OASIS items in the Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) category will be removed (one for living situation, two for food and one for utilities). These items were finalized in the CY 2025 Final Rule to begin data collection and reporting in CY 2027, so these items were removed prior to collection ever beginning.
Reconsideration Policy Change
- HHAs can request an extension for filing a reconsideration request, related to an initial determination on noncompliance, as long as the provider can show that the agency was impacting by an extraordinary circumstance during the established 30-day period for submission of reconsideration requests.
Revised HHCAHPS Survey
- Updates to survey questions (three new questions, eight removed) to begin in the April 2026 survey sample month.
Revised HHCAHPS Survey Measures and the calculation of the Patient Survey Star Rating
- Five new quality measures and updated weights to measures for Survey Star Rating calculation.

HHVBP Changes in CY 2026

Highlights for the HHVBP Applicable Measure set changes from the CY 2026 Final Rule include:

Removal of THREE HHCAHPS Survey-based measures
- Care of Patients
- Communications between Providers and Patients
- Specific Care Issues
- The revisions to the HHCAPHS survey would no longer allow for the calculation of these measures for use in the HHVBP applicable measure set
Addition of FOUR NEW measures to be added to the CY 2026 measure ser
- One claims-based measure, MSPB- PAC (Medicare Spending Per Beneficiary Post Acute Care) to help incentivize the delivery of high-quality home health services and help identify areas for improved efficiencies in resource usage.
- Three OASIS-based measures (Improvement in Bathing, Improvement in Upper Body Dressing and Improvement in Lower Body Dressing) in efforts to complement the Discharge Function Score (DFS) measure and provide a more holistic representation of a patient’s functional status.
Changes to the Measure Category Weights (larger volume cohort only)
- With the change in applicable measure set, the HHCAHPS-based measures will now have a lower weight and both the claims-based and OASIS-based measures will have a higher weight.

This overview highlights the most important HHQRP changes for HHAs under the CY 2026 Home Health Final Rule. Agencies are encouraged to review the complete final rule and adjust internal policies, OASIS reporting, and quality measure tracking accordingly.

The full text of the CY 2026 Home Health Final Rule is available here: https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2025-21767.pdf