The National Quality Forum has released their 2019-2020 Measure Applications Partnership Workgroup Recommendations. A total of 16 new quality measures are either supported or conditionally supported for rule-making.
A new measure under consideration for home health providers is MUC 19-34, “Home Health Within-Stay Potentially Preventable Hospitalization Measure .” This measure reports a home health agency level rate of risk-adjusted potentially preventable hospitalizations or observation stays that occur within a home health stay for all eligible stays at each agency. A home health stay is a sequence of home health payment episodes separated from other home health payment episodes by at least two days.
Another measure under consideration is MUC 19-33, “Hospice Visits in the Last Days of Life.” This measure reports the proportion of hospice patients who have received visits from a Registered Nurse or Medical Social Worker (non-telephonically) on at least two out of the final three days of the patient’s life.
In addition to these potential new measures, there are many others under consideration, including many changes related to MIPS, Medicare Part D and opioids. To see the full list of quality measures under consideration, click here to visit the National Quality Forum.