title: Home health agency quality: Medicare certification findings compared to patient outcomes.
abstract: As part of an evaluation of the Medicare certification program for home health agencies (HHAs), we examined the extent to which certification findings were related to patient outcomes. In a previous study, we collected longitudinal patient data for a national sample of 42 HHAs and developed precise patient outcome measures. In this study, the outcome measures were compared to certification findings for the same HHAs and time period (1991-93). We found relatively little association between the two sets of measures. The findings indicate that the Medicare HHA survey process does not yet successfully incorporate patient outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Center for Health Services Research, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Denver 80222, USA.
authors.forename: R E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Schlenker
authors.forename: D F
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Hittle
authors.forename: A G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Arnold
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D014487:Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S.; D002568:Certification; D006302:Health Services Research; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D018574:Home Care Agencies / Q000592:standards*; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D006278:Medicare / Q000592:standards*; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011787:Quality of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States