Hospice Quality Reporting

Section 3004 of the Affordable Care Act directs the Secretary to establish quality reporting requirements for Hospice Programs . Please see below link to Section 3004 of the Affordable Care Act which contains the actual language.

Quality Reporting

Section 3004 requires the Secretary to publish, no later than October 1, 2012 the selected quality measures that must be reported by Hospice Programs. The ACA requires that CMS use nationally endorsed quality measures, but also allows CMS to specify measures that are not already endorsed if a feasible and practical measure in the area determined appropriate by the Secretary has not been endorsed.

Penalties for Failure to Report

For fiscal year 2014, and each subsequent year, failure to submit required quality data shall result in a 2 percentage point reduction to the market basket percentage increase for that fiscal year.

Public Availability of Reported Data

Section 3004 requires the Secretary to establish procedures for making data available to the public and requires the Secretary to establish procedures to ensure Hospice Programs have the opportunity to review that data prior to public reporting. No date has been specified to begin public reporting of quality data.

To read more about Section 3004 (Quality Reporting for Long-Term Care Hospitals, Inpatient Rehabilitation Facilities, and Hospice Programs) please note the link below for P.L. Public Law No: 111-148, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.