Do you lead a post-acute care facility? A $1,000 honorarium offer to help revolutionize the gathering and dissemination of your patients' medical information could come today.
Implementation of a federal law passed in 2014 to standardize patient-assessment data in post-acute care facilities has reached a key milestone, with national testing of the new data-collection methods set to begin in the fall.
The primary goals of the Improving Medicare Post Acute Care Transformation Act (IMPACT Act) of 2014 include enabling comparisons of quality across different post-acute care settings, boosting the exchange of information across post-acute care settings, and improving care coordination.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is implementing the IMPACT Act, with the Rand Corporation serving as the initiative's primary contractor.
On June 20, CMS officials and Rand executives led a conference call update on the initiative for post-acute care providers, featuring information on the "Alpha 1" and "Alpha 2" early rounds of data-collection testing as well as plans to launch a national "Beta" testing effort in November.
The top objective of the IMPACT Act is to create a core set of standardized data at home health agencies, inpatient rehabilitation facilities, long-term care hospitals (LTCHs), and skilled nursing facilities, a Rand executive said during Tuesday's conference call.
Currently, these post-acute care providers each use their own patient-assessment methodology such as the LTCH Continuity Assessment Record and Evaluation (CARE) Data Set.
Based on an information-gathering effort Rand conducted in 2015 and 2016—including literature reviews, expert focus groups and consultations with CMS—Rand targeted five categories of patient-assessment data for standardization:
- Function such as self-care ability and mobility levels
- Cognitive function such as the presence of depression or dementia
- Special services and treatments such as the need for a ventilator or dialysis
- Medical conditions and co-morbidities such as diabetes and heart failure
- Impairments such as incontinence or difficulty swallowing
The national testing set to start in November, which is designed to examine the reliability and validity of the data elements proposed for standardization, is slated to last six months. Fielding testing of patient assessments using the new standardized methodology will be conducted on computer tablets, with no requirement to enter the patient assessments in a post-acute care facility's electronic health record.
Participation in the national testing is voluntary.
CMS and Rand are seeking 210 organizations to participate in the national testing in 14 metropolitan areas:
- Boston, MA
- Harrisburg, PA
- Philadelphia, PA
- Fort Lauderdale, FL
- Durham, NC
- Chicago, IL
- Nashville, TN
- Kansas City, MO
- St. Louis, MO
- Dallas, TX
- Houston, TX
- Phoenix, AZ
- Los Angeles, CA
- San Diego, CA
Recruitment for national testing participants has begun through a phone-outreach campaign. This week's update conference call highlighted several incentives for post-acute care providers to participate in the testing:
- Training and experience with the patient-assessment data collection methodology that could be mandated under the IMPACT Act
- Opportunity to give "on-the-ground input" to CMS
- Honorarium of $1,000
- Internal and external publicity to show an organization's commitment to quality and innovation
- Networking with peer organizations
Rand is expected to submit formal recommendations to CMS by the fall of 2018.
Christopher Cheney is the CMO editor at HealthLeaders.