An upcoming healthcare regulation will help post-acute care providers ensure safe information sharing and make quality care more affordable to patients, according to a pre-conference session at the 2016 Long-Term and Post-Acute Care Health Information Technology Summit.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) presented on the Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation (IMPACT) Act of 2014, which will require the submission of standardized data by all post-acute care facilities, creating a record of a patient’s care and health goals. The session “Supporting Health Information Exchange in LTPAC” discussed preparation and guidance on the Act, which begins to go into effect Oct. 1, according to a press release from the American Health Information Management Association.
“The IMPACT Act is a critical topic at this year’s summit because of its significance to the industry’s evolving need for interoperability,” said AHIMA CEO Lynne Thomas Gordon, MBA, RHIA, CAE, FACHE, FAHIMA. “This will provide more effective and efficient care and safe information sharing to LTPAC facilities.”
LTPAC participation in electronic information exchange is increasingly important in the industry, and the IMPACT Act provides guidance on where to start, according to CMS. The IMPACT Act requires that post-acute care providers report standardized assessment data elements in certain quality measure domains, and that CMS makes assessment data elements interoperable. This will allow continued access for all involved.
This session also addressed Assessment Data Element Standardization and how these initiatives relate to the CMS Quality Strategy of better care, healthy people and communities, and affordable care, the press release notes.
