On October 9, 2014, CMS is publishing a proposed rule that would extensively revise the conditions of participation (CoPs) that home health agencies (HHAs) must meet to participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The rule is intended to provide HHAs with enhanced flexibility while focusing provider efforts on the services delivered to the patient, the quality of care furnished by the HHA, and quality assessment and performance improvement efforts. According to CMS, the proposed CoPs “reflect a fundamental change in our regulatory approach — a change that to a large extent establishes a shared commitment between CMS and HHA providers to achieve improvements in the quality of care furnished to HHA patients.” CMS expects its patient-centered, outcome-oriented approach to enhance the working relationship between state survey agencies and HHAs, and provide a basis for improved performance that will help ensure that quality care is provided to all patients.

More specifically, CMS proposes to establish the following four CoPs (in addition to retaining current requirements related to comprehensive assessment of patients):

  • “Patient rights” would emphasize the HHA’s responsibility to respect and promote the rights of each home health patient.
  • “Care planning, coordination of services, and quality of care” would incorporate the interdisciplinary team approach to provide home health services focusing on the care planning, coordination of services, and quality of care processes.
  • “Quality assessment and performance improvement” (QAPI) would require each HHA to conduct ongoing quality assessment, incorporate data-driven goals, and maintain an evidence-based performance improvement program of its own design to affect continuing improvement in the quality of patient care.
  • “Infection prevention and control” would require HHAs to follow accepted standards of practice to prevent and control the transmission of infectious diseases and to educate staff, patients, and family members or other caregivers on these accepted standards.

CMS proposes to remove many process details from the current CoPs where they do not achieve the goal of ensuring desired outcomes. CMS is not proposing to incorporate by reference any specific clinical practice guidelines or professional standards of practice; HHAs would be responsible for identifying their own performance problems through their QAPI programs, addressing them, and continuously striving to improve the quality of care, patient outcomes and satisfaction, and efficiency/economy. The proposed CoPs also are designed to enable surveyors to look at outcomes of care and “how effectively the provider was pursuing a continuous quality improvement agenda.”  CMS will accept comments for 60 days after publication (December 8, 2014).