At the September 12 Policy Member Meet-up, C-TAC’s policy team provided updates on our regulatory, Congressional, and state policy engagement.
Torrie Fields provided updates on recent advances in state and private efforts to expand access to serious illness care. States are taking multiple routes including standalone palliative care benefits; expansion through health homes, managed care contract requirements, and other value-based purchasing efforts; expansion through waiver programs for adults, children, or both; master plans on aging; health information exchange efforts; and private payor collaborations.
She indicated that state agencies and payors need help from coalitions and leaders in serious illness to support policy and reimbursement activities such as:
- Determining who would be most appropriate for services
- Determining provider capacity, competencies, and training needed to deliver services
- Understanding the “ideal” care model
- Understanding the up-front capital investment needed to deliver services and ongoing costs, including staffing, administration, and other infrastructure
- Setting expectations for outcomes from services, including quality and reporting
- Identifying additional needs to support equity and access, including public engagement, provider education and training, and consumer protections
Furthermore, there are some exciting changes to the measurement and reporting of equity and quality metrics across federal and state levels. Among them are HEDIS measures aimed at incentivizing managed care organizations to increase access to advance care planning.
Brian Lindberg provided an update on Congressional activities including a potential debt limit deal to prevent a federal government shutdown on October 1. He also provided a legislative update on advance care planning, hospice, community-based supports and services, and caregiver support. C-TAC has provided input on the Advance Care Improvement Act, and expressed broad support and submitted comments for the Older American Act’s proposed regulations.
Marian Grant provided regulatory updates including C-TAC’s submission of comments on CMMI’s Guiding an Improved Dementia Experience (GUIDE) Model, an 8-year national demonstration that aims to support people living with dementia and their unpaid caregivers which meets all of C-TAC’s Core Principles of Care Models.
C-TAC also submitted comments on the Proposed 2024 ESRD Rule. C-TAC supported: the adoption of facility commitment to health equity reporting measure; convert clinical depression screening and follow-up reporting measure to clinical measure; and the adoption of screening for social drivers of health reporting measure and adopt the screen positive rate for social drivers of health reporting measure. C-TAC recommended future measures: advance care planning, felt heard and understood, palliative care access and utilization, and timely and appropriate referral to hospice. C-TAC also responded to request for Information (RFI) on Access to Home Health Aide Services.
For more information about membership and attending C-TAC events, please contact Partnership Director, Luke Scuitto.
