CMS Starts New Initiative to Reduce Avoidable Hospitalizations for Nursing Home Residents

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently launched the “Initiative to Reduce Avoidable Hospitalizations among Nursing Facility Residents.” Under the initiative, CMS will award cooperative agreements to seven organizations to improve the quality of care for nursing home residents. The organizations will work with 145 nursing facilities to test models that will improve services furnished to residents and prevent avoidable hospitalizations. To test the models within nursing facilities, the organizations will provide on-site staff to furnish the following services to residents:

• Preventive services;
• Medical condition assessment and management;
• Transition services; and
• Enhanced use of new medical technologies.

Both CMS’ Medicare-Medicaid Coordination Office and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation will oversee the new program. The initiative is expected to reduce the high cost of avoidable hospitalizations, which exceeded $7 billion in 2011.

The CMS press release on the Initiative to Reduce Avoidable Hospitalizations is available here: http://www.cms.gov/apps/media/press/release.asp?Counter=4454&intNumPerPage=10&checkDate=&checkKey=&srchType=1&numDays=3500&sr.

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. “New Program to Increase Quality in Nursing Facilities.” Press Release. 27 Sep. 2012.