New Payment Model Part of CMS Hospitalization Reduction Effort

Phase two of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Initiative to Reduce Avoidable Hospitalizations among Nursing Facility Residents will provide funding to selected nursing homes to intensify staff training and purchase new equipment to help avoid preventable hospitalizations. It will also provide new payments to physicians for engagement in multidisciplinary care planning activities to facilitate practitioner engagement when a nursing facility resident needs higher-intensity interventions due to an acute change in condition.   

Since 2012, CMS has funded six Enhanced Care and Coordination Providers, including the Greater New York Hospital Foundation, which works with nursing homes to test ways to improve care for long-stay nursing facility residents through clinical and educational interventions. Of the 145 homes involved in the nationwide project, about 30 are in the New York City area. The new phase will likely expand to an additional 30 NYC area homes starting in the fall of 2016. More information on the new initiative is available here, while the entire project is described here. 

Contact: Darius Kirstein, dkirstein@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8841