Overview

In Marketscape for Home Health, the most recent quarter of metrics will always show a number that is unexpectedly small in comparison to previous recent quarters. CMS assigns home health claims to a quarter based on the through date, not the start date. Trella Health assigns claims based on start date. Thus if the claim was not completed during the quarter shown in the table, the CMS data will not reflect that claim until the following quarter, at which point we retroactively update the counts for the given quarter in the latest data set.

From experience with updating these metrics when the complete claims are available, the most recent quarter has been under-represented by about 30%. With PDGM changes, because of shorter episodes and lengths of stay, the deficit is closer to 25%. Seasonal trends and variations in billing practices between agencies might impact this percentage up or down as well.

This quarter of data is highlighted in blue to make this distinction stand out. (See Screenshot)

We have attempted numerous methods to use data from previous quarters to extrapolate an approximation for metrics limited in this way. Numerous factors are involved. Given the variability of the results we have found, we have determined that no helpful or reliable estimate can be created that would be more beneficial than the incomplete, but accurate, numbers currently presented.