The Commonwealth Fund Creates eBook for Medicare’s 50th Anniversary

Medicare at 50 Years, an eBook created by The Commonwealth Fund, comprises six in-depth papers about the past, present and future of Medicare, each written by a national expert on Medicare and health policy. Read and share with others:

• Medicare: 50 Years of Ensuring Coverage and Care
• The Affordable Care Act and Medicare: How the Law Is Changing the Program and the Challenges That Remain
• Medicare Payment Reform: Aligning Incentives for Better Care
• Modernizing Medicare’s Benefit Design and Low-Income Subsidies to Ensure Access and Affordability
• Serving Older Adults with Complex Care Needs: A New Benefit Option for Medicare
• Predictable Unpredictability: The Problem with Basing Medicare Policy on Long-Term Financial Forecasting

Also featured is a timeline—50 Years of Medicare: How Did We Get Here?

Go here to learn more and download the eBook.

Contracted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), atom Alliance is a five-year, five-state initiative to ignite powerful and sustainable change in healthcare quality. Formed as a partnership between three leading healthcare consultancies, atom Alliance works throughout Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee to improve quality and achieve better outcomes in health and healthcare and at lower costs for the patients and communities we serve.

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Get a Head-Start on CE Requirements: Seven Free Courses

Summer is here and you may be getting some time to relax. What about taking a couple of free continuing education (CE) courses through HHQI University? Get a few under your belt now rather than waiting until your renewal is due. There are now seven free courses available – all of which include free nursing CEs from the American Nurses Credentialing Center.

Available CE Courses:

• NEW! Master the Maze of Blood Pressure Medications
• Fundamentals of Medication Management
• Cardiovascular Health for At-Risk Populations
• Lifestyle Management for Cardiovascular Health
• Tobacco Effects & Cessation Medications
• Blood Pressure Control & Smoking Cessation
• The State of Cardiovascular Health

Click here for the course catalog.

Learn more about how atom Alliance is working with home health agencies to improve cardiac health.

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Understand the New Home Health Patient Survey (HHCAHPS) Star Ratings

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) hosted a Special Open Door Forum (SODF) on Thursday, May 7, 2015 about a new set of Star Ratings for the CMS Home Health Compare website. The title of the Special Open Door Forum is “All About Home Health Patient Survey (HHCAHPS) Star Ratings.” Review the materials or listen to the recording to learn more about how CMS plans to use Home Health CAHPS survey results to create Patient Survey Star Ratings for the Home Health Compare website.

CMS plans to publicly report the (HHCAHPS) Patient Survey Star Ratings on Home Health Compare on www.medicare.gov starting in January 2016. The Patient Survey Star Ratings are in addition to the Quality of Patient Care Star Ratings which will start in July 2015.

This SODF described the rationale and overview of the HHCAHPS Patient Survey Star Ratings. It gave a detailed description of the methods for calculating the ratings and assigning stars. The SODF PowerPoint Slides, Technical Paper, and FAQs can be found on these websites:
http://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments/HomeHealthQualityInits/HHQIHomeHealthStarRatings.html
https://homehealthcahps.org

A transcript and audio recording of this Special ODF will be posted to the Special Open Door Forum website at http://www.cms.gov/OpenDoorForums/05_ODF_SpecialODF.asp for downloading.

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New Nursing CEs Now Available

A new online educational course has been added to the Cardiovascular Health catalog in HHQI University. Nurses who successfully complete the LIfestyle Management for Cardiovascular Health course will receive 1.0 hours of free Continuing Education (CE) credits. Others completing the course will receive a certificate of completion. Many state and national therapy organizations will apply these certificates toward CE requirements. Please check with your organization for specifics.

The activities in the course include:

• Reviewing content within the e-Learning course
• Watching 3 short videos
• Reading a few workbook pages
• Completing an evaluation & post-test

Visit the HHQI University page on the HHQI website to learn how to enroll.

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How Does Your Community’s Health Rank?

The County Health Rankings & Roadmaps program is a collaboration between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute. Their vision is that we all strive together to build a national culture of health that enables everyone to lead healthy lives.

The goals of the program are to:

• Build awareness of the multiple factors that influence health
• Provide a reliable, sustainable source of local data to communities to help them identify opportunities to improve their health
• Engage and activate local leaders from many sectors in creating sustainable community change
• Connect and empower community leaders working to improve health

Since 2003, they have released county health rankings that rank

1. health outcomes, such as length and quality of life; and
2. health factors, such as health behaviors, clinical care social/economic factors and physical enviroment.

How healthy do you think your community is? See how communities in atom Alliance states rank:
Alabama
Indiana
Kentucky
Mississippi
Tennessee

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Nurses: Free Continuing Education Credits for Blood Pressure Control & Smoking Cessation

The Fundamental Focus: Blood Pressure Control & Smoking Cessation focuses on two key evidence-based strategies to reduce heart attacks and strokes. This package will serve as a refresher and is intended for use by clinicians and leaders.

Nurses can earn 1.5 hours of free Continuing Education credits (CEs) by successfully completing the Blood Pressure Control & Smoking Cessation course. Others completing the course will receive a certificate of completion. Visit the HHQI University page on the Home Health Quality Initiative (HHQI) website to learn how to enroll.

Please note: You will be asked to log in or register on the website before being able to access the best practice information. Registration is easy… and free!

Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organizations (QIN-QIOs), like atom Alliance, are now recruiting healthcare providers for a voluntary five-year effort to provide free quality improvement assistance to Improve cardiac health & reduce disparities. Physician practices and home health agencies that partner with their QIN-QIO for this effort will receive the following benefits:

• Individualized technical assistance related to setting and achieving quality goals
• Expertise on interpreting data to drive quality improvement
• Customized, evidence-based educational resources and tools
• Local networking opportunities

QIN-QIO efforts align with the HHQI National Campaign and include implementing resources such as HHQI Best Practice Intervention Packages (BPIPs) and the Home Health Cardiovascular Data Registry (HHCDR) to improve home health quality.

All QIN-QIOs are currently serving as HHQI Network Coordinators. Please see our current list of Network Coordinators to contact the QIN-QIO in your state and learn more about how you can partner to improve the health of the people you serve.

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