HOS
The Health Outcomes Survey (HOS) was the first tool used in Medicare Coordinated Care that relied on patient-reported outcomes. The objective is to gather valid, reliable, and meaningful health status data from the Medicare Advantage (MA) program.
Your HOS scores are triple-weighted as well as the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers & Systems (CAHPS) in overall clinical assessments.
There are 12 questions about Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) and health status. These include the ability to move, memory loss, and urinary continence. These are significant indicators of independence, societal cost and individual quality of life, therefore, these are aspects that gauge the value of your work in our society. Studies continue to show that HOS scores are better in Medicare Advantage (MA) than in Fee-For-Service Medicare.
This information is important to improve activities, pay for performance, program oversight, public reporting, and health results. It is required for every managed care organization with Medicare contracts and is administered annually to a random sample of patients from each participating MA plan. These patients get surveyed again.
So, your performance and contribution are already being measured in our new Fee-For-Value world. Your compensation and quality of life will be dependent on those scores, and those are too important to give away to a local hospital. Hospital priorities do not include you, your family, or your patients' preventive medicine concerns.
1.Timbie JW, Bogart A, Damberg CL, Elliott MN, Haas A, Gaillot SJ, Goldstein EH, Paddock SM. Medicare Advantage and Fee-for-Service Performance on Clinical Quality and Patient Experience Measures: Comparisons from Three Large States. Health Serv Res. 2017 Dec;52(6):2038-2060. doi: 10.1111/1475-6773.12787. PMID: 29130269; PMCID: PMC5682140https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5682140/
2. King, R. Medicare Advantage plans achieve better outcomes than traditional Medicare, BMA analysis finds. Fierce Healthcare Dec, 2020.
3. Ayanian, J. Z. , Landon B. E., Zaslavsky A. M., Saunders R. C., Pawlson L. G., and Newhouse J. P.. 2013. "Medicare Beneficiaries More Likely to Receive Appropriate Ambulatory Services in HMOs Than in Traditional Medicare." Health Affairs (Millwood) 32 (7): 1228–35.
4. Elliott, M. N. , Landon B. E., Zaslavsky A. M., Edwards C., Orr N., Beckett M. K., Mallett J., and Cleary P. D.. 2016. "Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Enrollees Report Less Positive Experiences Than Their Medicare Advantage Counterparts." Health Affairs (Millwood) 35 (3): 456–63.
5. Gold, M. , and Casillas G.. 2014. "What Do We Know about Health Care Access and Quality in Medicare Advantage Versus the Traditional Medicare Program?" https://www.kff.org/medicare/report/what-do-we-know-about-health-care-access-and-quality-in-medicare-advantage-versus-the-traditional-medicare-program/
6. Keenan, P. S. , Elliott M. N., Cleary P. D., Zaslavsky A. M., and Landon B. E.. 2009. "Quality Assessments by Sick and Healthy Beneficiaries in Traditional Medicare and Medicare Managed Care."
7. Landon, B. E. , Zaslavsky A. M., Bernard S. L., Cioffi M. J., and Cleary P. D.. 2004. "Comparison of Performance of Traditional Medicare vs Medicare Managed Care." Journal of the American Medical Association 291 (14): 1744–52.
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