Quality

This is the first in a series of classic information documents.

This document was created by the CMS Quality Council, in an effort to delineate and advance a vision for improving of medical care. It provides a summary of CMS's many quality-related initiatives. The goal of the quality roadmap is to ensure the right care for every person every time and to do this by making care safe, effective, efficient, patient-centered, timely and equitable.

KaiserEDU.org is designed to provide students, faculty and others interested in learning about health policy easy access to the latest data, research, analysis, and developments in health policy. This site includes narrated slide tutorials, background reference libraries, and issue modules on current topics and policy debates.

In 2001, CMS worked with state agency associations to initiate the National Quality Inventory Project (NQIP) with a goal to obtain baseline information about state HCBS waiver program QA/I systems. Through this project an extensive survey of state QA/I systems was conducted. This report describes NQIP, summarizes and discusses the results of this first-time, nationwide systematic survey of state waiver program QA/I systems. The report also includes recommendations for CMS follow-up.

The purpose of this 2001 Real Choice System Change grant project is to review personal assistance services policies across departments and programs to identify unnecessary inconsistencies and opportunities to maximize consumer choice and control. This comparative analysis identifies opportunities for increasing consumer choice and control across Maine’s personal assistance services (PAS) program and offers additional findings and recommendations.

Long term care reform is happening across the nation and some states are using systems change as an opportunity to better coordinate across aging and disability networks. Using the HHS framework as a guide, this paper examines promising practices in LTC reform in four states: Oregon, South Carolina, Vermont, and Wisconsin. As part of our examination of systems change in these states, we will consider how their LTC reform efforts have impacted collaboration across aging and disability networks.

The target population for this instrument is adults with acquired brain injuries. It was developed with assistance from brain injury waiver staff in several states and combining elements of the original PES E/D & MRDD tools. The four domains include: program supports; choice and control; respect and dignity; and community activities. Two additional sets of questions, covering community integration in greater depth and ADL/IADL unmet needs, are included for waiver programs where applicable.

Quality Communication #9 represents another in a series of CMS communications to support state efforts to improve the quality of services and supports. The letter announces 4 technical assistance products: Home and Community Based Services: Quality Management Roles & Responsibilities; Discovery Methods for Remediation and Quality Improvement; Software for the Participant Experience Survey (PES & Users’ Guide) –MR/DD Version; Participant Experience Survey & Users’ Guide –Brain Injury version.

The Council on Quality and Leadership (CQL) proudly offers the cross-walk between CQL’s new Quality Measures 2005 and The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Quality Framework for Home and Community Based Services (HCBS). This cross-walk is intended to help align the Quality Framework with valid and reliable strategies for gathering and reporting data and evidence. The Cross-Walk clearly demonstrates how CQL’s Quality Measures 2005 provide an integrated approach to quality management.

To assist states in developing and implementing home and community-based waiver programs, CMS has developed a Quality Framework. The purpose of this background memo is to help Cash and Counseling states apply the framework and incorporate the necessary waiver assurances as they develop their quality management plans for consumer directed programs. This paper offers examples that operationalize the quality framework and tables about participants: Access, Safeguards, Outcomes and Satisfaction.