There is tremendous opportunity for home health agencies to grow their businesses during this time of tremendous change. An often-neglected area for growth is patient engagement, also known as Home Health Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HH-CAHPS) surveys, as evidenced in the updated Conditions of Participation (COPs) which increases emphasis on patient-centered care.
Many home health organizations are unaware of competitive advantages achieved by participating in the HH-CAHPS survey process and the benefits to reviewing insights routinely. The survey captures tracking measures for home healthcare and is centered around patient outcomes and patient perceptions of the care they received from the agency.
The increasing focus on patient-centered care puts patient sentiment in the forefront of outcome-focused care. Simply delivering quality clinical care is not sufficient if patient perception of that is inconsistent with the quality of care provided. Patients are more likely to opt to receive care from and remain loyal to agencies with which they are most engaged, even when offered the option to switch to another provider. Organizations that understand this focus on delivering the best service and constantly aim to keep a pulse on patients’ perceptions of their care.
Even though patient engagement should always remain top priority for all healthcare organizations, several small home health organizations, with a census of less than 60 Medicare patients, often opt to remain exempt from HH-CAHPS survey participation. Apart from a two-percent reimbursement reduction in the market basket rate, which applied for a minimum of one year, organizations that neglect to participate often fail to fully understand the patient care experience.
Participation in HH-CAHPS is a requirement for all agencies serving 60 plus patients and those who receive payment from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which includes Medicare, Medicaid, Medicare Advantage and Medicaid Advantage. According to the HH-CAHPS Protocols and Guidelines Manual, patient count is based on total patients served, rather than the active patient census.
CMS is beginning to shift focus more to ensure agencies participate in quality reporting through OASIS and HH-CAHPS, as well as the inclusion of the pay-for-reporting provision, where reporting thresholds are identified in the 2017 Final Rule.
The HH-CAHPS survey measures patients’ experiences with home healthcare providers and captures several important categories through a series of standardized questions administered by mail, telephone or email. The standardization in questions and survey methods allows agencies to benchmark nationally against peers in the industry, providing even greater insight into organizational performance.
Outcomes-based care, clinical measures and HH-CAHPS survey results will become increasingly more important to agencies for the long-term success and viability of health care organizations, as will the transition to value-based reimbursement where payments will eventually be tied to performance. Organizations that focus exclusively on complexity and compliance of HH-CAHPS participation, or choose not to analyze results routinely, are missing out on a powerful tool to gain additional insight to better patient care and business growth.
