In an effort to directly involve patients in their care, CMS proposed a new rule late last week that would change discharge planning requirements for acute hospitals and settings across the post-acute continuum. CMS’ focus was in driving consumer-centered healthcare in alignment with the Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation Act of 2014 (IMPACT Act).

Don’t miss the upcoming McKnight’s Long-Term Care News Fall Online Expo on Wednesday, September 9. The event seeks to answer the many remaining questions about recent proposed payment changes for Medicare.

Late last week, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) finalized several Medicare payment rules for providers, which will go into effect on October 1, 2015. Among these was the Final Fiscal Year 2016 Payment and Policy Changes for Medicare Inpatient Rehabilitation Facilities. This final rule takes into account responses submitted by Kindred Rehabilitation Services, as well as other providers and stakeholders, to the proposed rule issued in April 2015.

Striving toward the best possible patient outcomes guides everything we do in each of our owned and managed facilities, and we are proud to share our 2014 quality measures by the numbers.

Each year, we feature our quality outcomes by the numbers in the Kindred Healthcare Quality and Social Responsibility Report to demonstrate the success of our therapy and rehab’s critical role in the care continuum.

The U.S. Senate overwhelmingly passed (92-8) a permanent “Doc Fix” – officially known as the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015. This comes on the heels of the House passing the same bill with strong bipartisan support late last month. Now, with the President indicating he will quickly sign the measure, the bill will soon become law.

After discharge, there are times when our patients want to maximize the success of their rehabilitation by having continued access to the state-of-the-art equipment that helped them recover. A therapy maintenance program can be a great way for orthopedic patients to continue self-care and preserve regained function on one’s own time, under the supervision and counsel of trained therapists.

The Smart Moves wellness program from RehabCare enables our partner facilities to offer the services and guidance that aging adults need to stay active and independent, with or without chronic disease.

Consistent with prior years’ budget proposals, the 2016 plan seeks to pay for some of the unrelated priorities through cuts to healthcare. Rather than pursue reimbursement cuts to fund unrelated legislative proposals, as the President’s budget appears to do, Kindred and RehabCare support progressive patient-centered policy development that focuses on patient need and integrated care rather than artificial caps on services.

Highlighting quality outcomes is essential to demonstrate functional improvement of patients. Download RehabCare’s white paper, The Importance of Clinical Outcomes in Rehab Programs: Today and in the Age of Healthcare Reform, for free.