Situation Report | January 4, 2021
On January 1, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) went forward with Version 3.00 of the Hospice Item Set (HIS) data submission specifications.
This new version does not include Section O which gathers visit data. CMS will use hospice claims data to obtain visit data and will replace the Hospice Visits When Death is Imminent measure with the Hospice Visits in Last Days of Life measure. The latter captures RN and medical visits in at least two of the last three days of life for hospice patients.
CMS’s HIS Manual Version 3.00 is not yet final and is still pending approval from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The implementation of the HIS Version 3.00 specifications will prevent hospice providers from encountering any fatal errors/rejected records whether submitting HIS records with or without section O. Either Version 2.00 or Version 3.00 HIS records will be accepted in the Quality Improvement and Evaluation System (QIES) Assessment Submission and Processing (ASAP) system and there is no negative impact to hospices if they are continuing to utilize the HIS Version 2.00 with admissions and discharges on January 1.
According to the National Association for Home Care and Hospice (NAHC), most of the electronic health record (EHR) vendors are prepared for and plan to utilize the new HIS Version 3.00 beginning with admissions and discharges on January 1.