The HHVBP Changes Experts Believe Home Health Providers Are ‘Overlooking’

Home Health Care News | By Patrick Filbin
 
Several of the biggest changes in the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) CY 2024 final home health rule deal with the Home Health Value-Based Purchasing (HHVBP) model.
 
At face value, it may seem like the HHVBP process is being simplified in the way providers fill out OASIS forms.
 
However, there’s more to it than just that.
 
“What is true today is not what’s going to be true with the final rule,” Cindy Krafft, owner of K&K Health Care Solutions, said during a MedBridge webinar on Tuesday. “I do believe that many people were so concerned about the reimbursement piece that there was not enough feedback in the open comment period about some of these other things.”
 
For instance, Krafft pointed out the HHVBP change which saw a total normative composite turn to a discharge functional score.
 
Essentially, CMS will evaluate home health agencies with an emphasis on the functional status of patients at the time of discharge from their agencies, as opposed to a comprehensive measure of various factors — including patient outcomes, processes of care and patient experience.
 
“That sounds like a great concept, but we can’t oversimplify it,” Krafft said.
 
For example, OASIS measures like eating, oral hygiene, toileting hygiene and a number of physical functionality scores are included in the new calculation.
 
What’s missing, Krafft pointed out, is bathing and dressing.
 
“There are some pretty heavy-hitting activities related to function that we have been focused on — and rightfully so — for a very long time,” Krafft said. “Even before OASIS, we knew our folks had to be able to manage bathing and dressing and meal prep and all of those things to be able to have patients be safe at home. But they’re not on this list.”
 
The reason why the list is shortened is related to the Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation Act, also known as the IMPACT Act.

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