MASTER CLASS SERIES
Guidance from Top Industry Experts
Learn from the best.
Industry specialists from across the nation lead master classes designed to take your organization to the next level.
Each series gives you practical ideas and actions to improve your organization. You’ll also gain access to a master educator to answer your questions at each live session. Can’t attend live classes? On-demand sessions will be available at the conclusion of the live series.
Exploring the Hospice Final Rule & HOPE Tool
Hospice
$499
The CMS FY 2025 Hospice Final Rule ushers in significant regulatory changes that affect reimbursement, compliance, and agency operations.
Discover how to confidently navigate this new focus for Medicare-certified agencies. Our comprehensive series of hospice master classes delivers essential information on the impact of payment rate and wage index changes and how the HOPE tool will alter your patient data collection process.
Live virtual classes are scheduled November 7, 14, and 21, 2024. Earn credits while you learn! 4.5 nursing contact hours are available for the series.
Designed for Your Busy Schedule
Each class includes a presentation and Q&A session. Attend live or view recordings of each session at your convenience. On-demand classes will be available at the conclusion of the live series.
Taught by Kristie Meers, BSN, RN, CHPN, Chief Clinical Officer at Careficient.
An RN for 37 years, Kristie has devoted nearly 20 years to hospice leadership, quality management, and clinical compliance. As a passionate hospice advocate, she supports the strategic goals of agencies by encouraging engagement and clinical adoption of technological solutions to improve patient outcomes and operational efficiency. Kristie is committed to helping hospices and other in-home care organizations optimize processes to ensure quality of care, support compliance, and accelerate growth.
Class 1 | Noon to 1:30 p.m. ET Thursday, November 7, 2024
Hospice Final Rule Overview
This class examines FY 2025 updates to the CMS hospice wage index and payment rates, which became effective October 1, 2024. We also explain how these changes affect your operations and give you information you can use to determine your new payment rate.
Topics
- Payment rates: A detailed breakdown of the new base payment rates for routine home care, continuous home care, inpatient respite care, and general inpatient care.
- Wage index updates: Changes in the wage index values used to adjust payments based on geographic location and local labor costs.
- Impact of inflation and labor costs: Insights into how inflation and increasing labor costs factor into hospice rate adjustments and operational challenges.
- Hospice Quality Reporting Program (HQRP): Overview of CMS HQRP reporting requirements and deadlines as well as penalties for noncompliance and their financial impact.
Class 2 | Noon to 1:30 p.m. ET Thursday, November 14, 2024
Preparing for HOPE
The CMS Hospice Final Rule finalized collection of HQRP measures through a new instrument, the Hospice Outcomes and Patient Evaluation (HOPE) tool. While implementation is set for October 1, 2025, preparing for this transformational shift in quality data collection will take careful planning. This class explores essential elements of the HOPE tool and new quality measurement requirements.
Topics
- HOPE details: Background and purpose of the HOPE tool, how HOPE fits into the broader landscape of hospice quality measurement, and regulatory requirements tied to HOPE.
- Key domains covered by HOPE: Impacts on physical, emotional, spiritual, and social aspects.
- HOPE components: A deep dive into each of the four domains, including data collection requirements, the scoring system, and metrics.
Class 3 | Noon to 1:30 p.m. ET Thursday, November 21, 2024
Effectively Using the HOPE Tool
Learn how to use the HOPE tool. This class takes you step-by-step through the process, including a hands-on practice using a case study to input HOPE data. Potential challenges and solutions are also covered.
Topics
- Audit and compliance preparedness: How to ensure compliance with regulatory bodies, including CMS, and avoid potential pitfalls in HOPE documentation.
- Data analytics and reporting: Best practices for analyzing and reporting HOPE data to regulatory bodies, using data trends to inform quality improvement initiatives, and how HOPE data contributes to broader hospice performance measures.
- Clarifications in the Final Rule: Explores clarifications to distinctions between the election statement and the notice of election, and alignments to CMS and billing requirement verbiage that pertains to the hospice medical director.
