Resources

As CMS journeys toward value-based care, we have seen significant changes in how data is collected. While the hospice industry has been late to the game, they are catching up! In hopes of improving the quality of care provided to hospice patients and their families, CMS added a standardized data collection tool in 2014. This tool, the HIS (Hospice Item Set), has been utilized by CMS for over ten years to capture patient data at admission and discharge. Hospice agencies are required to submit this data to the Hospice Quality Reporting Program (HQRP) or suffer payment penalties if they fail to do so. The reporting of quality data has also been made available to the public to help consumers compare hospice providers.

However, CMS was not finished! With a patient-centered focus of care, CMS began working on a way to collect data more real-time and have developed a tool they have named the HOPE (Hospice Outcomes and Patient Evaluation) tool. The HOPE tool will replace the HIS beginning October 1, 2025. This tool will gather information about the patient by using data gathered while actively interacting with the patient and their family or caregiver. The HOPE tool is also better designed to accommodate patients with challenging or unpredictable medical, social, or spiritual needs. The new tool will also look at patients during different time points, not just admission and discharge.

There are three things you can do now to prepare for this upcoming change:

1. Work with your EMR and workflows to ensure they are ready to accommodate the change;
2. Train and educate your staff;
3. Incorporate the HOPE into your QAPI Program and prepare for increased data analysis.

For more information on this topic, please visit the following websites:

https://www.cms.gov/medicare/quality/hospice/hope

https://www.cms.gov/medicare/quality/hospice