Acronyms in Presentation
     » Average daily census (ADC)
     » Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
     » Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers  and 
       Systems (CAHPS®) Hospice Survey
     » Electronic Health Record (EHR)
     » Hospice Evaluation and Assessment Reporting Tool (HEART)
     » Hospice Quality Reporting Program (HQRP) 
     » Hospice Item Set (HIS)
     » Lengths of stay (LOS)
     » Special Open Door Forum (SODF)
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     Purpose of this slide deck:
     » The following slides provide a summary of the 
        HEART Pilot A
     » The work of Pilot A was based on stakeholder 
        input as discussed in the 
        HEART Technical Expert Panel Report  
     » The assessments tested were based on TEP input.
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       Section I
       BACKGROUND
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     HEART Background
     » The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is 
        developing and testing a standardized patient assessment 
        tool for hospices entitled the Hospice Evaluation & 
        Assessment Reporting Tool (HEART). 
     » As a comprehensive patient assessment tool, HEART’s 
        goal is to understand the care needs throughout the end 
        of life process.  It will provide hospices with important 
        information to help them understand and address patient 
        and family needs while ensuring the delivery of high 
        quality care throughout the patient stay. 
     » HEART is intended to be multifunctional, such that it is 
        used by hospices as part of their plan of care and by CMS 
        for quality measure development. 
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      HEART Intended Use
      To meet its goals:
      » HEART will include interim assessments, standard of practice 
         checklists, and additional clinical items that can be used to develop 
         new quality measures, in addition to admission and discharge 
         assessments. 
      » HEART will complement existing requirements set forth in the 
         Medicare Hospice Conditions of Participation, such as the initial and 
         comprehensive assessment. It would be designed to complement 
         data collected as part of high-quality clinical care.
      » HEART will replace the current HIS if implemented, it will not replace 
         other Hospice Quality Reporting Program (HQRP) data collection 
         efforts (that is, the CAHPS® Hospice Survey). 
      » HEART will not replace regular submission of claims data; HEART 
         might consider future payment refinements as a secondary goal, but 
         this is not planned at this time.
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