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Value Based Purchasing is alive and well and dwelling within Nine States! Agencies have been hard at work preparing for this and continue to strive toward being the best that they can be. Some of the issues that surrounded full implementation were questions like: Which OASIS would be included in the calculations; Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Skilled Medicaid? We had a verbal that it would be Traditional Medicare only, but were no convinced that would be the case due to the fact that Home Health Compare includes them all. The FAQs, that were updated 01/05/16, includes the following response:

The OASIS-based measures are calculated using assessments from the OASIS assessments from Medicare FFS, Medicare Advantage, Medicaid FFS, and Medicaid Managed care. However, the measures are risk adjusted to include risk factor elements like the payer for the episode (Medicare/ Medicaid / Managed Care) as well as other risk factors selected using a rigorous, multi-step process that includes clinical review of the scientifically identified risk factors.

Even though risk adjustment is applied for the other payers, it is still a more difficult feat to show improvement.

One question that has been confusing regarding registering a Point of Contact for each Provider Number/CCN is why only one and can consultants have access?  The FAQs response:

When the POC completes the second component of registration (which is to register for the Innovation Center Portal) they will be able to designate additional user roles. These include data entry and reviewer roles.

So more that one person can have access to perform data entry and retrieve reports.

Other key factors to remember: The reporting of the three New Measures will start October 1, 2016 for the period July 1-September 30.  Agencies should get the established Achievement Thresholds and Benchmarks from 2015 by April 2016.

There was a Special Open Door Forum on December 17, 2015 and information from it can be found at the following link:  https://www.cms.gov/Outreach-and-Education/Outreach/OpenDoorForums/Downloads/AnncHHVBPModel121715.pdf

NAHC is working hard in conjunction with many speakers from across the country to put together a full one day workshop on Value Based Purchasing to be taught in the nine states that are currently participating in the model.  Check with your local State Home Care Association for more information!