The newly formed, legislatively appointed Healthcare Workforce Safety Working Group held its second meeting last week, where members of the group shared how they may intersect with home and community-based providers along with some preliminary ideas to enhance the safety and protections for the home care worker. 

 
 Some suggestions already being shared are to create a central repository that can be easily accessible and provide the necessary safety/risk data to help guide decision-making and care plan interventions. Also of interest is a standardized risk assessment tool, enhanced lines of communication between transitions of care and possible technological devices/alarms.

 

Given that the formal recommendations are due to the CT Public Health Committee on or before January 1, 2025, the group will need to meet frequently to understand the intricacies of the many levels of home and community-based services as well as how possible enhancements to technology and state systems may offer more timely information.

 

On Tuesday, October 1, 2024, the new Home Health intake data collection requirements from Public Act 24-19, An Act Concerning The Health And Safety Of Connecticut Residents, went into effect. To assist with compliance and implementation, the Association has been collaborating with the care continuum Associations to ensure open communication and feedback.

 

Click here to watch the Healthcare Workforce Safety Working Group meeting on CT-N.

Source: The Alliance, October 7, 2024

 

On October 4, 2024, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released QSO-25-02-Hospice, a memo providing an update on an overview of the Hospice Special Focus Program (SFP). This memo outlines the implementation of the SFP, which was finalized in the Calendar Year (CY) 2024 Home Health Prospective Payment System (HH PPS) final rule and mandated under the HOSPICE Act, incorporated through Division CC, section 407 of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021. The goal of the SFP is to provide enhanced oversight of hospices identified as having substantially failed to meet Medicare program requirements and, in turn, protect hospice beneficiaries from receiving substandard care. See previous NAHC Report coverage in the footnotes.

Source: The Alliance, October 7, 2024

 

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued the annual update to the healthcare common procedure coding system (HCPCS) codes used for home health consolidated billing enforcement.

 
 There are 71 new codes that will take effect January 1, 2025. Most of the new codes are for compression garments and wraps used for patients with a lymphedema diagnosis.

 

Congress passed the Lymphedema Treatment Act in December 2022, establishing Medicare coverage for lymphedema compression garments and wraps under the DMEPOS benefit, effective January 1, 2024. CMS implemented the new benefit through the calendar year (CY) 2024 Home Health Prospective Payment System, Final Rule. In the final rule, CMS was silent regarding the intersection of the new lymphedema benefit and the home health consolidated billing requirements. Additionally, CMS did not include the compression garments and wraps in the home health consolidated billing for CY 2024. CMS, only now, seems to have determined that these items are to be classified as Medicare Part B non-routine supplies that are to be included in the home health consolidated billing.

2022 Data Show First Increase in Hospice Utilization Rates Since COVID

 

(Alexandria, VA and Washington, DC) – The National Alliance for Care at Home (the Alliance) published the 2024 edition of National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) Facts and Figures, an annual report on key data points related to the delivery of hospice care, including information on patient characteristics, location and level of care, Medicare hospice spending, and hospice providers. Facts and Figures – the leading resource for hospice providers and others interested in understanding the work of the community – has been published annually for over two decades by NHPCO. NHPCO is currently integrating into the Alliance, a newly formed national organization that is combining the two leading organizations supporting the care-at-home community – NHPCO and the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC).

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued a new report that analyzes aspects of the Acute Hospital Care at Home (AHCAH) initiative. As of late July, 332 hospitals across 38 states had been approved to participate in the program, which issues waivers for hospitals to provide care in the home setting. Those waivers are set to expire at the end of the year but could be extended with reauthorization by Congress.

 

The 79-page report found that cost comparisons between AHCAH patients and hospital inpatients were inconclusive, but feedback from patients who participated in the program was "overwhelmingly positive," according to CMS, which intends to continue reviewing data on the program.