HHS expands quality initiative to home health field - Policy Watch - Brief Article

Healthcare Financial Management, April, 2003

With formal announcement of the program February 20, HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson kicked up the throttle on the home health quality initiative (HHQI). Patterned after what was put in place for nursing homes, the HHQI pilot is slated to start in April, with plans to go nationwide in the fall. The pilot states are Florida, Massachusetts, Missouri, New Mexico, Oregon, South Carolina, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.

As with HHS's nursinghome initiative, the HHQI will use the GMS web site to distribute quality-of-care information. The quality indicators reported to the public will be drawn from the Outcomes and Assessment Information Set (OASIS). Quality improvement organizations (QIOs), formerly peer-review organizations, are expected to play a major role in the initiative by training agency caregivers, on a voluntary basis, in quality improvement and its integration into ongoing staff training. The QIOs are currently recruiting home health agencies to participate in the training and hope to enlist at least 30 percent of the agencies in each state in the training.

To learn more about the HHOI and the role of QIOs, go to www.ahqa.org/pub/media/l59_678_.4133.cfm or see the HHS press release at www.dhhs.gov/news/ press/2003pres/20030220.html.