Health Outcomes Survey (HOS) season is here! The HOS is administered annually between July and November to a random sample of Medicare Advantage (MA) members. HOS ratings are included in the Star Ratings for MA Quality Bonus Payments.
The goal of the Medicare HOS is to gather valid, reliable, and clinically meaningful health data to use in quality improvement activities, pay for performance, program oversight, public reporting, and to improve health. All managed care organizations with Medicare contracts must participate. In addition to health outcomes measures, the HOS is used to collect three HEDIS® effectiveness of care measures:
- Management of Urinary Incontinence in Older Adults
- Physical Activity in Older Adults
- Fall Risk Management
What can you do to improve your HOS scores?
- Customize patient-specific care for patients with greater needs.
- Implement a pre-visit checklist to address issues or concerns the patient has raised during previous visits.
- Dedicate time to review health history before a patient’s appointment time.
- Consider using depression screening tools like the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) to identify early signs of depression.
- Ask questions to assess if a patient’s mental health affects daily activities.
- Implement a standardized functional assessment tool to monitor patients’ physical activity.
- Initiate the discussion of bladder control with patients and ask if it has affected their daily life or sleep.
- Recommend exercises and discuss treatment options.
- Ask if the patient has fallen since their last visit or had any changes to their walking or balance.
