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On April 28, CHA issued an alert encouraging members to contact their congressional representative and request their support of H.R. 2455, The Resetting the Impact Act (TRIA) of 2021, which seeks to update the Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation (IMPACT) Act of 2014 by requiring the use of more recent, relevant data in future payment policy development.
CHA supports these updates because the collection of timely and accurate data is critical to informing the development of future payment policy that will support timely access to medically necessary post-acute medical and rehabilitative care.
To assist with key messaging about TRIA — introduced by Reps. Terri Sewell (D-AL) and Vern Buchanan (R-FL) — CHA’s letter to Congress may be used as a template and personalized with details about individuals hospitals and their communities.
The IMPACT Act requires the development and implementation of standardized patient assessment and quality reporting measures in the four major post-acute care (PAC) settings, including long-term care hospitals, inpatient rehabilitation facilities, skilled-nursing facilities, and home health agencies to be used for quality, payment, and discharge planning and for other purposes. Additionally, the IMPACT Act requires that the Medicare Payment Advisory commission research and model a unified PAC prospective payment system.
In recent years, PAC providers at all levels have experienced comprehensive changes in payment systems and setting-specific regulations. Moreover, the current public health emergency has significantly impacted many aspects of provider operations, including patient admissions operations, use of resources, and care transitions. Consequently, data collected prior to and during the pandemic are not reflective of ongoing needs and should not be used to inform payment policy for the future.
TRIA would require the exclusion of data collected both prior to the recent PAC payment systems’ reforms as well as during the COVID-19 pandemic.
