- CMS News and Updates
- Register for upcoming events
- Leadership Lesson: Advice from the frontlines
- Resources and information on:
- Health Equity
- COVID-19 and Emergency Preparedness
- Opioid Utilization and Misuse
- Patient Safety
- Training
- Chronic Disease
- Care Coordination and Partnerships for Community Health
- Immunization
- BFAC
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For several years, CMS has provided clinicians and their representatives with preliminary scoring information during the submission period and preliminary feedback. This meant seeing an overall preliminary score and preliminary weighted category-level scores. As the MIPS program has matured and expanded, the reliability of these preliminary scores has decreased. Preliminary scores have always been subject to change as new data is calculated and added to your profile following the submission period.
The increasing volume of scoring information that can change after the submission period has made this information unreliable. As a result, CMS is eliminating the Preliminary Score and preliminary category level scores from submission beginning with data submission for the 2023 performance year.
What should you expect during submission?
When you sign into the QPP website during the submission period, you’ll continue to see much of the same information you’ve always seen:
- Measure-level scores for the quality measures you’ve submitted to date and a sub-total of points earned for these measures.
- Activity-level scores for the improvement activities you’ve submitted to date and a sub-total of points earned for these activities.
- Measure-level scores for the Promoting Interoperability measures you’ve submitted to date and a sub-total of points earned for these measures.
- The number of objectives you’ve reported completely for the Promoting Interoperability performance category.
- An indicator of any performance categories that will be reweighted (if applicable).
When will your 2023 final score be available?
You can preview your 2023 final score in mid-June 2024 and view your 2025 MIPS payment adjustment information in mid-August 2024. This is the same timeline as the 2021 and 2022 performance years.
CMS recognizes this is a big shift, but any preliminary scoring information has always been for informational purposes and is subject to change. CMS wants to help clinicians and practice representatives avoid making an incorrect assumption about their final score, given the volume of scoring information applied following the submission period.
You can obtain QPP assistance by visiting https://qpp.cms.gov/resources/help-and-support.
Events
Nursing Home Readmission Affinity Group: Simplifying the Readmission Puzzle
*NAB credits awarded* *CE for physicians and nurses available*
Tuesday, September 12, 2023, at 2 p.m. ET (30 min.)
Dr. Swati Gaur, MD, MBA, CMD, AGSF, and medical director, will lead three interactive sessions to help teams analyze readmission data and identify readmission strategies through real-life cases and nursing home experiences.
Register Here
THIS IS NOT A DRILL: Responding to the July 2022 Eastern Kentucky Flooding
Wednesday, September 20, 2023, at 11 a.m. ET (60 min.)
Last summer, residents of eastern Kentucky experienced the unimaginable as torrential rains caused massive flooding, swept away cars and homes and claimed 45 lives. At the center of the tragedy was Appalachian Regional Healthcare (ARH). Join Alliant Health Solutions and IPRO for this webinar. ARH representatives will share their experiences and lessons learned. You’ll hear stories of courage, compassion and resilience as ARH continues to support patients, employees, and the community in recovery and rebuilding.
Learning Objectives:
- Understand the impact of geography, culture and socio-economic status on planning and managing event response and community resiliency.
- Recognize the value of leveraging relationships and innovative approaches to event management.
- Identify strategies for collaborating with community partners through an extended recovery period.
Nursing Home Patient Safety Series: Urinary Tract Infections and Antimicrobial Stewardship
*ANCC and NAB credits awarded*
Wednesday, September 20, 2023, at 1:30 p.m. ET (60 min.)
This healthcare-associated infection (HAI) prevention webinar will discuss clinical and pharmacological interventions to reduce urinary tract infections and inappropriate antibiotic use in nursing facilities.
Register Here
Nursing Home Readmission Affinity Group: The First 48 Hours: Improving Patient Safety During Care Transitions
Tuesday, September 26, 2023, at 2 p.m. ET (30 min.)
*NAB credits awarded* *CE for Physicians and Nurses Available*
Medical Director Dr. Swati Gaur, MD, MBA, CMD, AGSF, shares actionable steps based on her real-life nursing home experience that you can use to integrate improved processes for care transitions.
Register Here
Recorded on July 27, 2023
This session discussed the latest changes in weather patterns that can impact emergency planning. Participants also learned about integrating Trauma-Informed Care (TIC) principles into emergency preparedness and got a sneak peek at the AHS online TIC training module for frontline staff.
View Recording | View Materials
Were You Able to "Use Tomorrow" What You Heard During the LAN Events?
If Yes, Click Below.
Nursing Homes LAN Attendees: Click here
Partnership for Community Health LAN Attendees:Click here
Thursday, September 21 at 2 p.m. ET | 1 p.m. CT (60 min.)
**ANCC and NAB credit awarded**
Join the monthly Shop Talk sessions hosted by the Alliant patient safety team. Attendees will receive updates on the NHSN database and CMS requirements. This month, we will help prepare you for collecting annual health care personnel (HCP) influenza vaccination summary data for the upcoming influenza season. There will also be a live question-and-answer session to help with your immediate needs. Submitting data accurately into NHSN will help you more confidently plan your risk assessments and quality improvement initiatives.
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Join the Alliant Health Solutions-LTC NHSN Group!
Joining the group and conferring rights to Alliant Health Solutions-LTC to view NHSN data allows for seamless support and technical assistance.
View Step-By-Step Guide
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Leadership
Words of advice from leaders on the front lines.
This month’s leadership lesson is from Danyce Seney, Alliant Health Solutions’ nursing home co-lead.
A Time for Transition and New Opportunities
While the “Back to School” season varies around the country, September is traditionally known as back-to-school time. For students, this time of year involves transitioning to new classmates, new instructors, and new expectations. In the workplace, September can be a time when new initiatives or projects start, often postponed over the summer because of the volume of vacations and time parents take off to prepare for the start of the new school year. Those projects can also involve working with new team members, new leadership, new company or regulatory expectations.
An article from Forbes, How Going Back To The High School Days Can Make Your A Better Leadersuggests that some of the decisions made in high school were the starting point for our development into the leaders we are today, and the lessons learned during those years are good to keep in mind in our current positions.
- Humility - Remembering the struggles, growth, misunderstandings, and compromises that were necessary to develop new relationships reminds us to approach workplace interactions with a humble and understanding mindset.
- Authenticity - It is important in the workplace to show up as your true, unfiltered self. Authentic leaders admit when they don’t have the answers and are open to learning from others.
- Appreciation of Diverse Skills - Leaders should acknowledge, value, and cultivate the unique talents and abilities that each team member brings to the table. Diverse talents and skill sets drive overall success.
- Diverse Perspectives - Listening to other perspectives provides insight and reminds you of the importance of thinking differently.
- The importance of honest feedback - Encourage employees to express their thoughts and ideas freely.
Additionally, as you move through life, always take a moment to look back at the individuals who contributed to shaping the person and leader you have become.
Alliant Health Solutions' health equity lead, Rosa Abraha, curated the following health trainings, events and resources related to health equity. Check out the resources listed below.
AHRQ Stats: COVID-19 Visits and Age-Related Disparities in 2020
In 2020, 3.8% of civilian, noninstitutionalized Americans had a COVID-19-related medical visit or prescribed medicine purchase. Adults between the ages of 18 and 64 were more likely to receive treatment for COVID-19 (over 4.5%) than children ages 5–17 (1.5%). Learn More
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Podcast AHSCAST - Making Health Care Better
 | Everyone deserves quality health care. Tune into the Alliant Health Solutions Making Health Care Better podcast every other Thursday as they interview guests committed to making health care better. If you are a health care consumer, provider, insurer, system or consultant, this is the podcast for you. View All Podcast Episodes |
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Resources
COVID-19 and Emergency Preparedness
View All COVID-19 News & Resources
All viruses, including the virus that causes COVID-19, change over time. Viruses with changes are called variants. The CDC is continually monitoring for new variants and studying their potential impact on public health. Vaccination remains the best protection against COVID-19 and will prevent serious complications and hospitalizations in those who become sick. Learn More
Impacts of Planned and Unplanned Power Disruption
Planned and unplanned power outages have occurred during, or even because of, other emergencies, such as wildfires and the COVID-19 pandemic. There are many challenges that your organization can face when responding to loss of power or other utility problems. This ASPR Tracie webinar highlights important key pieces to help you plan. View Webinar
Additionally, ASPR Tracie has information on utility failures on their website to better assist before, during or after the situation. View Website
New National Dashboard Tracks Heat-Related Illness
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Climate Change and Health Equity (OCCHE), in partnership with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), launched an online information portal, Heat-Related Illness EMS Activation Surveillance Dashboard (EMS Heat Tracker), which maps emergency medical services responses to heat-related illness across the country. The tracker will help public health officials ensure that outreach and medical aid reach the people who need it most and help decision-makers prioritize community resilience investments. View Dashboard.
Hurricane Season Predicted to be ‘Above-Normal’
The 2023 Atlantic hurricane season is projected to have an "above-normal level of activity," according to the annual forecast update by scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
The above-normal prediction is a change from NOAA's May outlook, which showed a "near-normal" number of storms for the first time in eight years. Earlier in the season, NOAA forecasted 12 to 17 named storms. Now, the agency projects 14 to 21 storms. The prediction includes tropical storms and hurricanes. About half of those are expected to be full-blown hurricanes. Read Article
Opioid Utliziation and Misuse
National Recovery Month is a national observance held every September to increase awareness of recovery and to celebrate the millions of people in recovery, their families and caregivers, and the peer workers and recovery organizations that make recovery from mental health and substance use conditions possible. Be sure to download the National Recovery Monthly Toolkit. Visit Website
National Pain Awareness Month
September is Pain Awareness Month to promote public awareness of pain, its prevalence, and education on treatment. Learn More
Xylazine Information Sheet
The North Carolina Division of Public Health's (NC DPH) Injury and Violence Prevention Branch developed a xylazine information sheet outlining the health impacts of xylazine showing up in the drug supply. Learn More
The 2022 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Clinical Practice Guideline is intended to help clinicians:
- Improve communication with patients about the benefits and risks of pain treatments, including opioid therapy for pain
- Improve the safety and effectiveness of pain treatment
- Mitigate pain
- Improve function and quality of life for patients with pain
- Reduce the risks associated with opioid pain therapy (including opioid use disorder, overdose, and death)
View the Guideline
Prevent Opioid Overdose With Naloxone
Clinicians play an important role in raising awareness about naloxone, a medication that can reverse the effects of an opioid overdose when given in time. Visit the CDC’s naloxone website to learn how to talk with patients about naloxone and reduce their risk of opioid overdose. You can also earn free continuing education credits. Visit Website
Opioid Resources:
Medication Reconciliation Tips for Providers & Staff – Use this resource as a guide to completing med rec. Download Resource
Medication Review Tip Sheet for Patients – Email or print this resource to give to your patients. Download Resource
Medicine Disposal - Use this resource to safely dispose of unused, unwanted and expired medications. Download Resource
Do’s & Don’ts of Pain Medicine - Use this resource to learn how to safely use pain medicine. Download Resource
My Med Bags:
Patient Safety
September is Sepsis Awareness Month. Every September, health care providers, the public and organizations raise awareness of sepsis, the leading cause of death in U.S. hospitals. Sepsis is a public health crisis, taking a life every two minutes. That is 270,000 lives lost to sepsis every year in the United States, more than lives lost to opioid overdoses, breast cancer and prostate cancer combined.
The key to saving lives is T.I.M.E. For every hour treatment is delayed, the risk of death increases by as much as 8%. T.I.M.E. is a memory aid developed by the Sepsis Alliance to help individuals remember the signs and symptoms of sepsis and the urgent need for medical treatment when they are present.
T.I.M.E. stands for:
T – TEMPERATURE that’s abnormal
I – Signs of an INFECTION
M – MENTAL DECLINE
E – Feeling EXTREMELY ILL
This September, take the T.I.M.E. to join Alliant in raising sepsis awareness and saving lives. Learn More
Enhanced Barrier Precautions Resources
New resources are available to train staff and visitors in implementing EBP in skilled nursing facilities. Find them here.
Urine Specimen Collection Tool – This resource supports infection prevention and control initiatives for urinary tract infections. Infection preventionists, nursing administrators, and clinicians can use this tool to support urine culture stewardship in their facilities.
Urinary Tract Infection Surveillance Implementation Bite-Sized Learning Video – This video is intended for infection preventionists in nursing facilities. It describes the importance of urinary tract infection surveillance and explains steps to implement UTI surveillance as part of a facility infection prevention and control (IPC) program.
Top 10 infection Control Deficiencies – This informational sheet features the top infection control deficiencies identified by infection preventionists. It features suggestions and resources on how to take action to remediate each issue.
Training
Train Nursing Home Staff as a Team With the Group Facilitator’s Guide
Did you know that nursing homes can train their staff as a team with the CMS Targeted COVID-19 Training for Frontline Nursing Home Staff Group Facilitator’s Guide? The Group Facilitator's Guide includes everything directors of nursing or other nursing home leaders need to facilitate team training. Training as a team makes it easy to integrate CMS Targeted COVID-19 training into existing staff meetings or orientations and fosters team collaboration. Download Group Facilitator’s Guide
CMS seeks to improve nursing home care and provide opportunities to expand training for infection prevention for all frontline and clinical staff. CMS has suggested the following list of trainings:
- CMS QSEP Targeted COVID-19 Training for Frontline NH Staff
- CDC Project Firstline
- HealthStream
- Health care Academy
- Relias
Scan the QR code below and complete the assessment to let us know what training you may provide in your facility. We can offer assistance with training program implementation as well. Visit https://bit.ly/NHIPAssessment.
Got questions? Need help? Want more information? Contact Rainmakers Strategic Solutions at 800-950-5636 or email NHIPTraining@rainmakerssolutions.com.
Chronic Disease
A recently published literature review, Economics of Team-Based Care for Blood Pressure Control: Updated Community Guide Systematic Review, demonstrated that team-based care for blood pressure control is effective and cost-effective.
Team-based care to improve blood pressure control utilizes a multidisciplinary team approach to improve the quality of care at an organizational level. It involves adding new staff or adjusting the roles of existing staff to support primary care providers' activities, including medication management, patient follow-up, medication adherence, and self-management support. Teams include patients, primary care providers, and other health care professionals such as nurses, pharmacists, dietitians, and community health workers. Contributing factors to successful interventions in the review encompassed improved integration of team-based care in health systems, increased effectiveness, use of generic and fixed-dose medications, and greater guidelines-driven treatment. Other findings implied that team-based care interventions also reduced blood pressure and other clinical outcomes related to type-2 diabetes and hyperlipidemia.
According to the review, team-based care for blood pressure control was shown to have a substantial population-level impact. The degree to which improved blood pressure control will prevent cardiovascular events and increase the quantity and quality of life are calculated using economic evaluations that result in measurements referred to as quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) gained or disability-adjusted life years averted. One study reviewed found team-based care to be highly cost-effective at $3,300 per QALYs gained when modeled for the U.S. population, with intervention cost of $1,002 and SBP reduction of 9.7 as inputs. The systematic economic review concluded that team-based care interventions for blood pressure control are cost-effective based on a median estimate of $12,897 per QALYs gained for the U.S. studies assessed.
Learn More: Fundamentals of Patient-Centered Team-Based Care | Engaging Patients in Self-Measured Blood Pressure Monitoring
Care Coordination & Partnerships for Community Health
The Age-Friendly Health Systems movement aims to provide evidence-based care to older adults equitably across health care systems. Explore IHI’s recipe for equity in the 4Ms, "Focusing on Equity at Every Step of Your Age-Friendly Health Systems Journey.” The recipe includes key considerations to effectively address the broader needs of the growing older adult population and embed equity into your age-friendly journey. Download Resource
New From CMS: Guiding an Improved Dementia Experience (GUIDE) Model
Dementia affects more than 6.7 million Americans. Despite its prevalence, many people living with dementia do not consistently receive high-quality, coordinated care, resulting in high hospitalization and emergency department visits. The CMS announced a new voluntary nationwide model–the Guiding an Improved Dementia Experience (GUIDE) Model–that aims to support people living with dementia and their unpaid caregivers. Learn More
Immunization
Pneumococcal Vaccine Timing for Adults ≥ 65 Years Resource
Adults 65 years and older have the greatest risk of serious illness and death from pneumococcal disease. Therefore, it is important to follow the pneumococcal vaccination schedule and guidelines. Alliant created a one-page reference to help ensure patients are up-to-date with their pneumococcal vaccinations. By adopting this resource, your pharmacy can provide accurate and consistent administration of pneumococcal vaccines across all patient groups. It can also serve as a reliable source of information for patients and health care providers. We encourage you to share this resource with all pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, and other pharmacies in your district, as the pneumococcal vaccine can help reduce the burden of preventable diseases in our communities. Download Resource
Seasonal Immunization Campaign Calendar – READY SET GO
This fall’s flu and pneumonia campaign and kick-off events are right around the corner! Are you ready? Pulse checks from August key milestones included establishing communication strategies for engaging families and health care agents and finalizing logistics and staffing plans. The Seasonal Immunization Campaign Calendar has resource links for planning and easy reference to meet your goals. In addition, check out the comprehensive Toolkit for Increasing Influenza Vaccination Rates in Nursing Homes.
Beneficiary & Family Advisory Council (BFAC)
Browse resources our council has worked on below:
Did you know that September is Healthy Aging Month? People celebrate this month by incorporating habits like exercise, eating healthy food and getting enough sleep into their daily routines. It is also a time for encouraging others to stay active and take steps to improve their physical and mental health. Learn More
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