Home Health Compare rolls out in Missouri

On Nov. 3, MissouriPRO launched Home Health Compare, part two of the federal Quality Initiative. This program targets the state's more than 150 Medicare-certified home health agencies that render patient services in a home context.

The program's objective is to strengthen consumer decision making by providing quality health-care information and motivating and supporting health-care providers toward improving their services.

In 2002 Medicare paid about $185 million for services rendered by Missouri home health care agencies, Joe Tilghman said, regional administrator over Missouri, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. "So we're talking big bucks, big programs here." His region received about $80 billion of the nation's approximately $400 billion 2003 Medicare and Medicaid budget.

"In Missouri we've got about 866,000 Medicare beneficiaries, and in calendar year 2002 just about 60,000 of them got some type of home care from the 159 home health agencies that are currently licensed in Missouri," Tilghman added.

How it works

Home Health Compare captures and synthesizes data quarterly on 41 possible measures. "But we're only picking 11 of those that we're going to report to the public and put in our public Web site (www.medicare.gov)," said Tilghman. Data can also be accessed by calling 1-800-Medicare.

From this data, patients and families can evaluate scores related to outcomes for home health care services provided in four primary areas: ambulation, daily need requirements, such as bathing or taking medicines, medical emergency care and mental health.

"It's a market-driven approach," Tilghman said. "If you provide the consumers with information, they will choose the agencies that best meet their needs, and it will drive quality up in various ways, by either providing the information or by driving more people to the better providing agencies."

Dollars to do

The Home Health Care program's three-year budget from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for years 2002 through 2005 is $1.54 million, said Andy Shea, communication specialist for MissouriPRO. Approximately 22 employees work in the program in both full-time and supporting capacities, he added.

The federal agency, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, along with MissouriPRO, the federally designated Quality Improvement Organization, are behind the rollout of this new Medicare service.

The Home Health Quality Initiative is part two of a three-part process that began in November 2002 with the Nursing Home Quality Initiative, and will be followed sometime in the next year or so by the Hospital Quality Initiative, Tilghman said.

Of the state's health agencies, 29 percent are nonprofit, 41 percent are for-profit and 29 percent are publicly owned entities, Shea said. There were approximately 1.4 million visits in 2002 he added. Agency participation is voluntary.