On Wednesday, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a new initiative aimed at avoiding expensive patient readmissions.
CMS announced the $128 million Initiative to Reduce Avoidable Hospitalizations among nursing facility residents. CMS will partner with independent organizations to improve care for long-stay nursing facility residents on Medicare and Medicaid, facilitating transitions to and from inpatient hospitals and nursing homes. Each organization proposes evidence-based intervention and an improvement strategy, targeted at preventive services and improved communication between providers.
"Being readmitted to a hospital is very difficult for low-income seniors, people with disabilities and their families," Tavenner said in a press release. "Through this initiative, we will work with nursing facilities and hospitals to provide better, person-centered care. By catching and resolving issues early, we can help people avoid costly and stressful hospitalizations."
Approximately 45 percent of hospital admissions among residents receiving either Medicare skilled nursing facility services or Medicaid nursing facility services could have been avoided. That accounted for 314,000 potentially avoidable hospitalizations and $2.6 billion in Medicare expenditures in 2005, according to CMS.
The news of this initative follows another recent CMS program announcement last week when CMS added 23 sites to its Community-based Care Transitions Program, with the goal of preventing high-risk Medicare patients from being readmitted.
As part of the two-year agreement, each participating organization will get a flat fee for coordinating care. With this round of agreements, CMS has allocated half of the $500 million of the anticipated program spending over five years to the Community-based Care Transitions Program.
The program will support more than 126 local hospitals and help more than 223,000 Medicare beneficiaries in 19 states, according to CMS.
Follow HFN associate editor Kelsey Brimmer on Twitter @kbrimmerHFN.