Public Reporting: Background and Announcements
Now available! Our new Provider Data Catalog makes it easier for you to search and download our publicly reported data. We have also improved Medicare’s compare sites.
About this Page
This page provides an overview of public reporting for the Hospice Quality Reporting Program (HQRP) on the Care Compare webpage.
Updates
November 12, 2020
IMPORTANT!!! Hospice Compare was retired on December 1, 2020, but you can still find the same information about Hospices and other health care providers on Care Compare on Medicare.gov. The Provider Data Catalog on data.CMS.gov also makes it easier for you to search & download our publicly reported data. Bookmark the webpages and start using these tools today!
September 8, 2020
HQRP COVID-19 Public Reporting Tip Sheet is Available
The HQRP COVID-19 Public Reporting Tip Sheet (PDF) is now available. The purpose of this Tip Sheet is to help providers understand CMS’ public reporting strategy for the Post-Acute Care Quality Reporting Program (PAC QRP) in the midst of the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE). This Tip Sheet explains the CMS strategy to account for CMS quality data that we exempted from public reporting due to COVID-19 PHE, and the impact on CMS’ Care Compare website refreshes. Please navigate to the HQRP Requirements and Best Practices webpage to download this document.
Care Compare
Beginning in September 2020, CMS transitioned to Care Compare on Medicare.gov to publicly report HQRP quality measures relating to care provided by hospice programs across the country. Publicly reporting these data fulfills the HQRP mandate, as directed in section 1814(i)(5) of the Social Security Act. Care Compare is a streamlined redesign of the former Hospice Compare and seven other CMS compare tools. It provides a single user-friendly interface that patients and caregivers can use to make informed healthcare decisions based on cost, quality of care, volume of services, caregiver feedback, including the willingness to recommend a hospice, and other data. In addition, providers with data on Care Compare can start a conversation with their patients and family members about Care Compare by:
- Explaining that Care Compare provides a snapshot of the quality of care a hospice offers;
- Encouraging patients and their family members to review quality ratings; and
- Helping to strengthen patients and family members’ ability to make the best decisions for their care.
Care Compare displays quality measures based on the Hospice Item Set (HIS) and CAHPS® Hospice Survey data. For the HQRP quality measures reported on Care Compare, visit the Current Measures page. Care Compare also posts data on the characteristics of Medicare hospice organizations from the Hospice Provider Utilization and Payment Public Use File (PUF), which has hospice data for 2014-2016, and the Post-Acute Care (PAC) PUF, which has data beginning with 2017. By providing these data in a user-friendly way on Care Compare, consumers can use this information, along with the HIS and CAHPS® Hospice Survey-based quality measures in selecting a hospice.
Note about Public Reporting for CY 2021
Due to the temporary exemption to the HQRP data submission requirements in responding to the COVID-19 PHE, public reporting of hospices’ data will freeze after November 2020 refresh. This means that following the November 2020 refresh, the data publicly reported will be held constant through the November 2021 refresh. Further, no Provider Preview Reports will be issued for those refreshes that continue to display the constant or frozen data. For additional information on COVID-19 PHE data exemption, please see the Hospice COVID-19 Public Reporting Tip Sheet in the Downloads section of the HQRP Requirements and Best Practices webpage. For more information about public reporting, please see the Public Reporting: Key Dates for Providers webpage.
Resources:
Other pages in the HQRP website provide more information relevant to public reporting:
- Current Measures: visit this page to learn more about the HIS- and CAHPS® -based metrics that are part of the HQRP and that are publicly reported on Hospice Compare.
- HQRP Requirements and Best Practices webpage: provides updates regarding reporting requirements, and announcements focusing on best practice methods to help hospices be successful with HQRP requirements.
- Help Desk: visit this page for all questions related to HQRP public reporting.
- Public Reporting: Key Dates for Providers for detailed information on upcoming dates relevant for public reporting.
- HIS and CAHPS® Preview Reports and Requests for CMS Review: visit these specific pages on Preview Reports and Requests to learn more about how to request CMS’s review of HQRP data before it is publicly reported.
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