Improvement in Bathing

The measure uses OASIS item M1830, Bathing. CMS compares the response recorded at start or resumption of care with the response recorded at discharge. An episode counts in the numerator when the discharge response shows less impairment than the baseline. The denominator is every quality episode ending in a discharge during the reporting period, minus the exclusions below. CMS risk-adjusts the result with a model built for this measure.

Patients who could already bathe independently at start or resumption of care are excluded, and so are patients who were nonresponsive. Episodes that end with an inpatient facility transfer, death, or discharge to home hospice are excluded; the hospice rule applies to episodes ending on or after January 1, 2023. Generic exclusions remove patients who do not need an OASIS, such as patients under 18, maternity-only and personal care-only patients, and single-visit episodes.

From CY 2026, CMS scores Improvement in Bathing as its own measure in the expanded HHVBP model. The M1830 answers your clinicians record at start of care and at discharge now feed the star rating and an HHVBP measure of their own.

Improvement in bathing is posted on Care Compare and is one of the seven measures in the Quality of Patient Care Star Rating. From CY 2026, CMS also scores it in the expanded HHVBP model's OASIS-based category. HHVBP performance in one year sets a payment adjustment of between minus 5% and plus 5% on Medicare fee-for-service payments in a later year; what that range means in dollars depends on your Medicare revenue.