Home Health Quality Reporting Program

Home Health Services

Home health is a covered service under the Part A Medicare benefit. It consists of part-time, medically necessary, skilled care (nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech-language therapy) that is ordered by a physician.

In 2021, there were 11,474 Medicare-certified home health agencies throughout the United States with approximately 3 million Medicare Fee for Service (FFS) beneficiaries using the home health care. In 2020, 8.3% of all Medicare FFS beneficiaries utilized home health care.

What's the CMS Quality Strategy?

CMS's Quality Strategy vision for improving health delivery can be said in three words: better, smarter, and healthier. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is focusing on:

• Using incentives to improve care.
• Tying payment to value through new payment models.
• Changing how care is given through:
  • Better teamwork.
  • Better coordination across healthcare settings.
  • More attention to population health.
  • Putting the power of healthcare information to work.

The Strategy is coordinated with the six priorities from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's National Quality Strategy. Each priority is a goal in our Quality Strategy.

What are the CMS Quality Strategy's goals?

CMS's Quality Strategy goals are to:

• Make care safer by reducing harm caused while care is delivered.
  • Improve support for a culture of safety.
  • Reduce inappropriate and unnecessary care.
  • Prevent or minimize harm in all settings.
• Help patients and their families be involved as partners in their care.
• Promote effective communication and coordination of care.
• Promote effective prevention and treatment of chronic disease.
• Work with communities to help people live healthily.
• Make care affordable.

Reporting Home Health Quality using OASIS Data

The instrument/data collection tool used to collect and report assessment data by home health agencies is called the Outcome and Assessment Information Set (OASIS). Since 1999, CMS has required Medicare-certified home health agencies to collect and transmit OASIS data for all adult patients whose care is reimbursed by Medicare and Medicaid with the following exceptions: patients under the age of 18, patients receiving maternity services, patients receiving only chore or housekeeping services. OASIS data are used for multiple purposes including calculating several types of quality reports which are provided to home health agencies to help guide quality and performance improvement efforts.

OASIS-E is the current version of the OASIS data set, effective 1/1/2023. OASIS-E was approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on 11/30/2022, with an expiration date of 11/30/2025. The valid OMB control number for this information collection is 0938-1279.

Quality Reporting on Care Compare website

CMS posts a subset of OASIS-based quality performance information on the Care Compare website. These publicly reported measures include outcome measures, which indicate how well home health agencies assist their patients in regaining or maintaining their ability to function, and process measures, which evaluate the rate at which home health agencies use specific evidence-based processes of care. CMS also reports information on Medicare fee-for-service claims-based measures and Home Health CAHPS® (Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems) measures on Care Compare.

Lists of all home health quality measures and designation of which are publicly reported can be found on the Home Health Quality Measures webpage accessed from the list on the left of this page. For more information on the Home Health (HH) Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS®) measures, please visit the official HH CAHPS® webpage.

Star ratings are other prominent features of the Care Compare website that summarize some of the current measures of home healthcare provider performance that are publicly reported. The star ratings are an additional tool to support consumers' healthcare decision-making.

You can find the latest developments for Home Health Services in the CY 2024 Home Health Prospective Payment System Final Rule in the Federal Registrar.