HHS Sheds Light on Hospice, Home Health Ownership Data

For the first time, HHS is releasing ownership data on all Medicare-certified hospice and home health agencies in an effort to increase transparency and competition in healthcare.

HHS announced yesterday that the ownership information on more than 6,000 hospices and 11,000 home health agencies is now available on the CMS website. Hospices and home health agencies now join the ranks of Medicare-certified hospitals and nursing homes, which had their ownership data publicly released last year.

“Transitioning to hospice care is often an emotionally overwhelming time for many families,” CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure said in the announcement. “Making this data public increases transparency, giving families the information needed to help them identify the best care for their loved one.”

That’s why the department is publishing data elements, including enrollment information (e.g., organization name, type, practice location addresses, National Provider Identifier, CMS Certification Number), as well as detailed information about each owner (e.g., whether it is an organization or an individual and whether it is a direct owner or indirect owner). Consumers will also be able to access the numerical associate ID for each owner to enable linkage to the enrollment file.

Additional files published on the CMS website include data on mergers, acquisitions, consolidations, and changes of ownership since 2016 for Medicare-certified hospices and home health agencies.

HHS expects to update hospice and home health ownership data on a quarterly basis and in a searchable format. A flat Excel file is available for download so researchers can use the information to glean insights into ownership status.

Increased transparency into ownership information enables researchers and enforcement agencies to identify owners linked to poor performance, according to HHS. The information also allows these stakeholders to analyze consolidation trends and how they impact consumers in terms of quality of care and costs.

HHS also plans to analyze the data to identify ways to inform policy approaches to increasing competition in healthcare.

Increasing transparency and competition in healthcare is a top priority for the Biden Administration, which released an Executive Order (EO) in 2021 outlining ways to promote competition across industries. The Administration said in the EO that excessive concentration and abuses of market power have led to issues in industries like healthcare. President Biden promised to enforce antitrust laws and promote market transparency to resolve the issues, like higher costs.

However, a recent report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that ownership data on nursing homes — and similar to the data released on hospices and home health agencies — does not align with the characteristics of effective transparency tools. The characteristics include information to be timely, written in plain language with clear graphics, and organized in a way that highlights patterns.

In addition, the tool should enable easy use and navigation, explain the purpose and value of the information, and describe key strengths and limitations, GAO said.