A Step-by-Step Guide to Post-Acute Quality Measures (Jennings - Online)

Course overview

The Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation Act of 2014 (the IMPACT Act) was passed by Congress on September 18, 2014, and signed into law by President Obama on October 6, 2014. The IMPACT Act requires the reporting of standardized patient assessment data by Inpatient Rehabilitation Facilities (IRFs), Long Term Acute Care Hospitals (LTCHs), Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNFs), and Home Health Agencies (HHAs). This patient assessment data is collected through the commonly used assessment instruments utilized for reimbursement in the post-acute settings. This legislation was a crucial step forward in improving the quality of health care for millions of Americans, providing consumers and government critical information regarding outcomes and cost. The IMPACT standardized assessments for critical care issues across the spectrum of post-acute care (PAC) providers and built a bridge to ensure that patient care is delivered based on what the patient needs, eliminating the silo-focused approach to quality measurement and resource utilization. As the healthcare reimbursement landscape continues to change and become more complicated, it is more important than ever that healthcare professionals remain highly knowledgeable in their understanding of quality measures and outcomes. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) was tasked by the IMPACT Act to develop and implement clinical categories to promote coordination of care as well as effective prevention and treatment of chronic illness. These clinical categories are categorized as an IMPACT Act Domain followed by an appropriate IMPACT Act Measure. This course will educate the therapy professional on the key components of quality measure data collection, quality measure domains, assessment categories, and how this information is compared across post-acute care providers and utilized to improve discharge planning and coordination of care. Also, this course will provide the framework to help guide the clinician to approach their documentation not only from a skilled level of care but, also as part of an interdisciplinary team focused on the individual needs of the patient while incorporating evidence-based and supportive documentation to justify care.