Last week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that its Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) and the Medicare-Medicaid Coordination Office are developing a demonstration project to address the costly problem of frequent preventable inpatient hospitalizations of nursing facility patients.
In 2005, CMS found 314,000 potentially avoidable hospitalizations of nursing facility residents eligible for Medicare and Medicaid. Those hospitalizations cost $2.6 billion in Medicare expenditures.
For CMS' demonstration project, the agency will select and partner with independent organizations to provide intervention services in about 150 nursing homes that have high hospitalization rates and a high concentration of residents eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid.
No independent partners have been identified yet said Brian Chiglinsky, CMS spokesperson, but the agency has a solicitation process that is open through July 29.
CMS' Sources Sought Notice for the project says that partners must be able to develop and implement interventions that demonstrate a strong evidence base and provide coordinated care, cooperation and communication between providers, the community and patients and their families. Partners should also work to put in place strategies to prevent such things as urinary tract infections, dehydration and adverse drug reactions, among others.
Demonstration project contracts are expected to last a year with an additional three 12-month options.