This is not a generic form pulled from a search result. It was built from real clinical and caregiving experience, tested against the actual situation you are facing, whether that is a visit, a chart, or a hard conversation. Download it and start using it right away. There is no software to install and no training required first. Use it exactly as it is, or adjust it to fit how your team or your family already works. Either way, you get a clear, ready-made tool instead of one more thing to build from scratch.

If you had to stop and think about it, you're not alone.

Since October 1, 2025, HOPE has been mandatory for every hospice admission and discharge. And the deadlines aren't simple. They don't start on the day of your first visit. They start on Day 0 — the effective date of the hospice election (A0220). Everything else counts forward from there.

Here's where it gets easy to lose track:

Admission (HOPE-ADM) has to be completed within 5 calendar days of Day 0.

HUV1 has its own window: Day 6 through Day 15. Not before. Not after.

HUV2 opens on Day 16 and closes on Day 30 — and it's required whether or not HUV1 was done on time.

If a patient reports a moderate or severe symptom during any of those visits, a Symptom Follow-Up Visit (SFV) is triggered, and you have exactly 2 calendar days to complete it.

And every one of those records has its own 30-day submission clock to iQIES, counted from the date it was completed.

That's a lot of moving windows to hold in your head while you're also managing patient care.

Here's what happens when one of those windows gets missed. A nurse finishes an HUV1 visit on Day 17 instead of Day 15. It still has to be completed and submitted — a late visit beats no visit — but it now counts against your hospice's timeliness threshold. And that threshold matters: CMS requires at least 90% of your HOPE records to be submitted and accepted within 30 days. Fall short, and your hospice takes a 4-percentage-point cut to its Annual Payment Update two fiscal years later.

Two fiscal years later. That's a penalty for a missed window today that shows up on a budget line item you won't see for two years. That's the kind of consequence that's easy to overlook in the moment and painful to explain after the fact.

This is exactly why we built the CMS HOPE Tool Timeline: Digital Reference Sheet.

It's one page. It puts the entire HOPE timeline in front of you at a glance: every day-count window, every submission deadline, the SFV trigger and its 2-day clock, and the 90% threshold that ties it all to your APU. No digging through a guidance manual mid-visit. No guessing whether HUV2 still applies if HUV1 was late (it does, by the way — that's spelled out on the sheet).

It also answers the question your team asks most: who is supposed to complete each record. CMS expects an RN for HUV1 and HUV2, since they involve clinical data that require a skilled nursing assessment. An SFV can be completed by an RN or an LPN/LVN. That's the kind of detail that saves a phone call during a busy week.

This sheet was built directly from the CMS HOPE Guidance Manual v1.02 and HQRP training materials — the same sources your compliance team already trusts. It's not a summary of a summary. It's the timeline, pulled straight from the source, laid out so you can actually use it.

Who this is for:

Hospice RNs and clinicians who need a fast answer during a home visit, not a 40-page PDF search.

Clinical managers who are responsible for their team's timeliness rate and want a tool they can hand to every new hire on day one.

QAPI and compliance staff who want a plain-language reference they can point to when questions come up about a specific window.

Meeting your HOPE deadlines isn't about working harder. It's about knowing exactly where you stand on Day 0, Day 5, Day 15, and Day 30 — without having to calculate it every time.

Get the CMS HOPE Tool Timeline: Digital Reference Sheet now. Click the buy button below to download it and put it in front of your team today.alignment.