Alliance for Home Health Quality & Innovation Research and Studies
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(last updated 11/20)
Optimizing Home Health Care: Enhanced Value and Improved Outcomes
Sponsored by the Alliance for Home Health Quality & Innovation and the Cleveland Clinic Center for Continuing Education
This supplement to the Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine discusses various topics in home health care, ranging from primary care to technology to health care reform. The journal covers a variety of topics relevant to home health care practice, including: care transitions and advanced home care models, home care for knee replacement and heart failure, technology innovations and palliative care, and the integration of home health into accountable care models. This resource—available electronically and with a corresponding free Continuing Medical Education (CME) program—aims to strengthen the quality of home care offered to patients. To read the supplement or take the CME course, please click here. You can also view the congressional briefing on the supplement, including Q&A from the journal’s authors, by clicking here.
The Clinically Appropriate and Cost-Effective Placement Project
Sponsored by the Alliance for Home Health Quality & Innovation
The Clinically Appropriate and Cost-Effective Placement (CACEP) Project, conducted by the research firm Dobson DaVanzo & Associates, examines how the Medicare home health benefit currently serves Medicare beneficiaries and the Medicare program, and how Medicare’s use of home health can better meet beneficiary needs and improve the quality and efficiency of care provided within the U.S. health care system. The project, which analyzed a five percent sample of three years of Medicare fee-for-service claims data, yielded four working papers and a final report. The working papers contain descriptive statistics on episode expenditures, episode frequency, patient pathways, and hospital admissions and readmissions.
The final report provides statistical modeling to identify how the Medicare home health benefit could more efficiently address beneficiary needs while reducing Medicare costs. Among other findings, the project concluded that a realignment of the existing Medicare home health benefit could yield savings as high as $100 billion over ten years. Alliance representatives found that this data was well received by officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), as it provides relevant insight on improving efficiency in the Medicare program. To read the working papers and the final report, please click here.
Fazzi Associates Research and Studies
National Study on Best Practices to Reduce Unplanned Hospitalizations
Sponsored by Delta Health Technologies. Co-sponsored by National Association for Home Care & Hospice, Home Health Quality Improvement (HHQI) National Campaign, NAHC Forum of State Associations, American Physical Therapy Association, and Fazzi Associates, Inc.
May, 2011
The National Study on Best Practices to Reduce Unplanned Hospitalizations has two goals: First, to identify the best practices that are used by hospital-based and non hospital-based home care agencies to reduce unplanned hospitalizations. Second, based on the findings, initiate a systematic effort that results in home care agencies not only learning about the best practice findings, but also adopting the findings. The study results will be shared with the entire field later this year. For more information, click here.
The Ohio Move to Improve Campaign for Excellence
The Ohio Move to Improve Campaign for Excellence is a systematic effort to work with 100 Ohio agencies to help them achieve measurable improvement in their acute care hospitalization and management of oral medications by July 1, 2012. It began on January 1, 2011. The first six months will be data collection, training on a proven improvement model, and support for developing a new, responsive clinical model to improve re-hospitalization outcomes. From July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2012, participants will be supported in making the right moves to improve the re-hospitalization outcome. For more information, click here.
Delta National Excellence in Therapy Project
Sponsored by Delta Health Technologies and Co-Sponsored by the National Association for Home Care & Hospice, the Home Health Section of the American Physical Therapy Association, the Home & Community Health Special Interest Section of the American Occupational Therapy Association, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, and Fazzi Associates
April 2011
This was the largest effort in the history of home care for therapy. More than 80 clinical experts from around the nation spent nearly 50 hours working collaboratively through six topics important to the proper and consistent documentation of the medical necessity of therapy services and the use of therapy assistants. The goal: to develop a shared set of recommended strategies, techniques, tips, etc. to help agency clinicians throughout the country more effectively manage their rehab services. For the full report, click here.
Delta OASIS-C Best Practices Project
Sponsored by Delta Health Technologies, National Association for Home Care & Hospice, and Fazzi Associates, Inc.
January 2010
More than 80 changes took effect with OASIS-C on January 1, 2010 – the biggest revision in the history of OASIS. This project brought together some of home care’s top clinicians from all 50 states in a national effort to support and improve the accuracy of our clinicians in using the OASIS-C data set. Learn more at the project site, or the full report click here.
Philips National Chronic Disease Expert Design Project
Sponsored by Philips Telehealth Solutions, National Association for Home Care & Hospice, and Fazzi Associates, Inc.
March 2009
This project brought together a national panel of medical experts in chronic disease and leaders in home health care, with the objective to develop telehealth clinical protocols and best practices in care for the four leading chronic conditions. Learn more at the project site, or for the full report click here.
National Best Practice Improvement Study
Fazzi Associates, Inc.
March 2008
The goal of the study is measurable financial and quality improvement for home health agencies. For study particulars and participation requirements, click here.
Philips National Study on the Future of Technology and Telehealth in Home Care
Sponsored by Philips Consumer Healthcare Solutions, National Association for Home Care & Hospice, and Fazzi Associates, Inc.
March 2008
The National Study of the Future of Technology and Telehealth in Home Care has been designed to generate industry-wide insights into the use of technology and telehealth by the full range of home care agencies. The goal is to provide home care leaders with the first real objective assessment of what is happening in terms of adoption, successes, and challenges of major types of technology now being used in the home care field. The study is designed to generate research based insights that enable easier, more educated decisions for home care leaders on the use of technologies – such as telehealth – in the delivery of services. Click here for the full study.
National Quality Improvement Hospitalization Reduction Study
Sponsored by Briggs Corporation, Fazzi Associates, Inc., and National Association for Home Care and Hospice
January 2006
The goal of the Briggs® National Quality Improvement/Hospitalization Reduction Study was to identify the best strategies and best practices being used by nation’s top agencies for improving quality and reducing unplanned hospitalizations. The study focused on the top 10% of agencies, those with hospitalization rates of 19% or lower. The national average has been fixated on 28% since the inception of CMS’s publicly reported Home Health Compare. Click here for the full study.
National OASIS Integrity Project… Ensuring Accuracy of OASIS Assessments
Sponsorsed by 3M Company, Fazzi Associates, Inc., and National Association for Home Care and Hospice – 2003
The National OASIS Integrity Project, an effort to develop clinician-friendly (simple and short) guidelines for ensuring accurate OASIS assessments, was developed through a three-way partnering between the National Association for Home Care, the 3M Company and Fazzi Associates. Click here for more.
The National Home Care Re-Engineering Study
Sponsored by Fazzi Associates, Inc., PricewaterhouseCoopers, and National Association for Home Care
April 1999
Medicare’s Interim Payment System (IPS), managed care, and future Prospective Payment System (PPS) have one common implication for most home health providers: fewer visits per patient. Recognizing this reality, Fazzi Associates, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and the National Association for Home Care (NAHC) collaborated on a national study that examined the practices of home health agencies whose utilization trends represented the future of home care. Click here for the full study.