CMS launches Hospice Compare site

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has launched a new tool to allow consumers to compare quality data on hospice and palliative care providers.

Hospice Compare, introduced today, “reports on about 3,800 hospice providers and will provide a snapshot of the quality of care delivered by each provider,” said Kate Goodrich, MD, MHS, director of the CMS Center for Clinical Standards and Quality, in a CMS media briefing.

The site will collect self-reported data on hospice demographics and individual quality measures. Consumers can compare up to three hospices simultaneously onscreen, or can download a database from the site.

The site data currently includes seven quality measures:

• Hospice and palliative treatment preferences
• Respect for patient beliefs and values
• Pain screening
• Pain assessment
• Shortness of breath screening
• Shortness of breath treatment
• Bowel regimen for opioid treatments

CMS plans to add additional quality measures in late 2018, including caregiver provider assessments and certain claims-based financial measures such as hospital transfers and number of visits when death is imminent.

Other CMS comparison websites include Nursing Home Compare, Long-Term Care Hospital Compare, Hospital Compare, Dialysis Compare and Home Health Compare.

For more information on today’s announcement, please see the CMS web page on Hospice Quality Public Reporting. 

Pamela Tabar

Pamela Tabar was editor-in-chief of I Advance Senior Care from 2013-2018. She has worked as a writer and editor for healthcare business media since 1998, including as News Editor of Healthcare Informatics. She has a master’s degree in journalism from Kent State University and a master’s degree in English from the University of York, England.