2017 will be an important year for the Hospice Quality Reporting Program (HQRP). CMS plans to publicly share quality scores on a Hospice Compare website starting this year. On January 18th, CMS provided a full day of training to providers in Baltimore to share information on HQRP. Along with this on-site presentation, CMS live-streamed the event online to allow as many hospices as possible to participate. Here are some of the highlights...

The rule includes two new quality measures and a new Hospice Item Set (HIS). CMS also reported that a star rating is coming soon.

To be ready for public reporting, hospices must start working now to ensure that these previously ineligible patients are meeting all applicable quality measures.

Home Health Line publishes article using SHP's Hospice HIS data

CMS has put its final stamp of approval on the Hospice Item Set (HIS). Now you need to get your hospice ready. Here’s how.

Using data collected from SHP clients who are using our hospice data analysis and benchmarking solution, we were able to fairly closely approximate the HIS measures and determine how well hospices are documenting their care and processes in key areas covered by the new item set.

In the first three months since the implementation of the Hospice Item Set (HIS), all but one of the 7 CMS Quality Measures have improved since July 2014.

SHP's data and other studies show that hospice care reduces costs and, as evaluated by consumers, consistently provides high quality care.