Discharge to Community Measure Call for Public Comment

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has contracted with RTI International and Abt Associates to develop a discharge to community quality measure to meet the mandate of the Improving Post-Acute Care Transformation Act of 2014 (known as the IMPACT Act). As part of its measure development process, CMS is seeking public comments on the proposed discharge to community measure.

The public comment period for this measure is now open, and will close on November 23rd, 2015. The Call for Public Comment can be found on CMS’s public comment webpage at https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments/MMS/CallforPublicComment.html.  To inform your comments, please download and review the file titled “Draft Specifications for the Discharge to Community Quality Measure for Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNFs), Inpatient Rehabilitation Facilities (IRFs), Long-Term Care Hospitals (LTCHs), and Home Health Agencies (HHAs).pdf”under the Download section at the bottom of the webpage.                             

We encourage you to submit comments on the measure. Please email all comments todischarge_to_community@rti.org by the closing date November 23rd, 2015.