Community Hospice LLC
Location of care
Level of care provided
Medicare reporting requirements for hospices
Family caregiver experience
Quality of patient care
For-Profit
05/30/2003
Consider this when choosing a hospice agency
Location of care
Level of care provided
All Medicare-certified hospices are required to offer 4 levels of hospice care depending on patient and caregiver needs.
Medicare reporting requirements for hospices
Hospices getting Medicare payments are required to report data to Medicare on the quality of care they provide.
Family caregiver experience
Quality of patient care
- Asking patients about their beliefs and values
- Asking patients about their treatment preferences
- Checking if patients are in pain
- Assessing patients who are in pain
- Checking if patients are short of breath
- Beginning treatment for patients with shortness of breath
- Offering care for constipation for patients taking opioids
If a hospice didn't complete one of these 7 care processes for a patient, the patient isn't included in the HIS measure score.
The second quality measure, the Hospice Visits in the Last Days of Life, measures if a hospice provided sufficient care to patients and caregivers during the last days of their life. Specifically, it measures the percentage of patients who were visited from a registered nurse or medical social worker on at least 2 of the final 3 days of their life.
The third quality measure, the Hospice Care Index score, helps assess how well hospices scored on 10 indicators of quality care compared to the national average. Examples of some of these indicators include the amount and timing of skilled nursing visits, discharges followed by hospitalization, and spending per patient. Hospices earn one point for each indicator if they meet the criteria for that indicator. A score of 10 is the highest score.