(Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services)
I think this is more important than simply saying, “CMS corrected a report.” When you actually look at the reporting periods being used, you realize how much information CMS is preparing to publicly report about your hospice. Several of these measures are based on two full years of information. That is a lot of data, and I would not assume everything is correct simply because it came from CMS, especially considering CMS reissued these reports because the first version contained an error.
The corrected November reports use four different reporting periods. Your Hospice quality measure scores are based on HIS data from Q1 2025 through Q3 2025. Your CAHPS measure scores are based on data from Q1 2024 through Q4 2025, which is two full years. Your CAHPS Star Ratings use Q4 2023 through Q3 2025, which is also exactly two years. Finally, your claims-based measures use claims data from Q1 2024 through Q4 2025, another full two years. These are the corrected reporting periods CMS published for the November 2026 refresh. (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services)
The claims-based measures are worth explaining because I don’t think the phrase means much if you don’t work with this information every day. These are quality measures CMS calculates using Medicare claims data that has already been submitted for your patients. In other words, CMS is taking two years of Medicare claims data, Q1 2024 through Q4 2025, and using that information to calculate claims-based quality measures that will become part of your publicly reported information.
(Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services)
The CAHPS information also represents a substantial amount of history. The CAHPS Hospice Survey measure scores for this refresh are calculated across eight quarters, Q1 2024 through Q4 2025. CAHPS Hospice Survey results are publicly reported on Medicare Care Compare, and the official CAHPS site confirms that this two-year period is the reporting period for the November 2026 refresh.(Hospice CAHPS Survey)
This matters because the Provider Preview Report is exactly what the name says. It is your opportunity to preview what CMS intends to put in front of the public before that information appears on Medicare Care Compare and in the Provider Data Catalog. Patients and families can see this information, but so can referral sources, competitors, employees, potential employees, payers, surveyors, and anyone else who wants to look at your hospice’s publicly reported performance.
(Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services)
There is an important distinction hospice leaders need to understand about what you can and cannot do during this preview period. This is generally not another opportunity to go back and correct old patient-level data because you now see a result you don’t like. CMS has separate data correction deadlines for the underlying data, and CMS specifically says that corrections made after those deadlines will not appear in later Care Compare refreshes for that reporting period.(Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services)
What you are looking for now is whether CMS correctly calculated and displayed the information it intends to publish based on the data that was available to CMS at the time the measures were calculated. CMS specifically says that if a hospice believes the denominator or another quality metric in the Provider Preview Report is inaccurate, the hospice can request that CMS review the calculation. (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services)
CMS is also very clear about what it will not consider an error during this process. If the problem resulted because the hospice originally submitted incorrect data, failed to make a necessary patient-level correction before the applicable correction deadline, or did not correct claims information before CMS extracted the claims for its calculations, CMS does not consider that a reason to review the measure. CMS considers the score accurate when it was calculated using the patient-level and claims data that were in its system at the appropriate time. (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services)
That is why I would approach this review very methodically. Download the reissued report even if you already downloaded the previous one. Then review your Hospice quality measures, CAHPS measures, CAHPS Star Ratings, and claims-based measures. Compare the results with what you know about your organization and your own internal reports. If something looks unusual, don’t just assume CMS must be right. Drill into it and determine whether there is actually a discrepancy.
If you believe CMS made an error in the calculation or what is being displayed, you can submit a request for CMS review during the 30-day preview period. For this reissued report, that means you need to act no later than September 24, 2026. CMS says the request must be submitted by email to HospicePRquestions@cms.hhs.gov. ( Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services)
CMS requires specific information in that request. You need your hospice’s CMS Certification Number, or CCN, your agency name and mailing address, and contact information for the CEO or the CEO’s designated representative, including the person’s name, email address, telephone number, and physical mailing address. You also need supporting information explaining why you believe the Preview Report is wrong, including which quality measure or measures are affected and what part of the measure you believe is incorrect, such as the denominator or another quality metric. ( Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services)
There is another detail I would pay very close attention to if you submit a request. Do not include protected health information. CMS specifically says requests containing PHI or other HIPAA violations will not be reviewed. Email is also the only method CMS identifies for submitting a request for review of Provider Preview Report data. (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services)
I would also save the report after you download it. The September 24 deadline is the end of the actual 30-day preview period, but CMS keeps the report available in iQIES for approximately another 30 days, for a total of about 60 days. After that, the report is no longer available in iQIES. CMS specifically recommends downloading and saving a copy for your records. (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services)
This is also why I continually encourage hospice leaders to monitor their own data throughout the year rather than waiting for CMS to hand them a report. By the time you reach the Provider Preview Report stage, some of the underlying data correction opportunities may already be gone. Your organization should already know what its quality measures look like, how its CAHPS performance is trending, what its claims-based measures look like, and whether something is moving in the wrong direction.
For the November refresh alone, CMS is looking at two full years of CAHPS measures, two full years of CAHPS Star Ratings, and two full years of Medicare claims data for the claims-based measures. That is a tremendous amount of information about your hospice being condensed into measures that will ultimately become public.
The fact that CMS had to reissue these reports because the original reporting periods were wrong should be enough reason not to simply glance at the corrected report and assume everything else is accurate. CMS corrected its mistake. Now hospices have until September 24 to make sure the corrected report accurately reflects what CMS should be publishing about them.
At The Amity Group, our Audit Protection & Compliance Division helps hospice leaders look beyond individual charts and understand the broader information CMS is seeing about their organization. We review clinical records, documentation and eligibility, but we also believe leadership needs to understand quality measures, claims-based information, and agency-level trends before those numbers become a problem.
If you already reviewed your November Hospice Provider Preview Report, go back into iQIES and pull the reissued version. Review it carefully, compare it with your own information, save a copy, and if you believe CMS made an error in the calculation or display of your results, submit your request for review before September 24.
You can review CMS’s current information about the reissued reports on the Hospice QRP Announcements & Spotlight page. CMS also provides detailed instructions on the Provider Preview Report and Requests for CMS Review of Data page, including exactly what must be included if you request a review.
Shelley Henry, RN, President | The Amity Group, Inc. | AmityStaffing.com
