HCBS Promising Practices Reports

Reviewed 5/15 and 5/16

This Repository of Promising Practices in Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS) highlights State efforts that enable persons of any age who have a disability or long-term illness to live in the most integrated community setting. Related links inside CMS include the New Freedom Initiative Home Page and HCBS Quality Initiative [no longer active].

http://cms.hhs.gov/promisingpractices/

CMS Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services Quality Home Page

Reviewed 5/16

Medicaid has a critical role to play in developing quality assurance and quality improvement (QA/QI) systems that effectively address the health and welfare of older people or individuals with a disability or long-term illness. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is committed to assisting in the design and implementation of effective and enduring improvements in HCBS quality management.

http://cms.hhs.gov/MedicaidStWaivProgDemoPGI/01_Overview.asp

HSRI Quality Community Resources

Reviewed 5/25

The Human Services Research Institute (HSRI) was established in 1976 with the express purpose of assisting States and the Federal Government to enhance services and supports to people with mental illness and mental retardation, and to support the development of alternatives to congregate care facilities. HSRI, a nonprofit organization, was active in the 1970s in the assessment of the impact of Federal programs, such as Supplemental Security Income, housing subsidies, and vocational rehabilitation, and their application to the expansion of community services for people with disabilities.

http://www.hsri.org

HCBS Clearinghouse and QA/QI Theme Pages

Reviewed 4/16, 4/17, 4/26, 4/27, 5/3, 5/4, 5/8,and 5/9

The Community Living Exchange Collaborative (The Exchange) is a joint effort of Independent Living Research Utilization, Rutgers Center for State Health Policy, the National Academy of State Health Policy, Boston College. The Exchange is funded by CMS through grants awarded under the Systems Change Community Living Initiative launched in September 2001. The primary audiences are States, territories, community-based groups, and others working within their disability and aging communities to design and implement community long-term support systems for individuals with disabilities and older adults.

http://www.hcbs.org/

CMS Real Choice Systems Change (RCSC)

Reviewed 5/3

CMS has awarded approximately $240 million in Systems Change Grants for Community Living to 50 States, the District of Columbia, and 2 U.S. territories. In all, 287 grants have been awarded during the 5 funding cycles. These grants are specifically intended to help States and others build the infrastructure that will result in effective and enduring improvements in community-integrated services and long-term support systems.

http://www.cms.hhs.gov/realchoice

Medicaid Long-Term Services Reforms in the Deficit Reduction Act

Reviewed 5/18

A leader in health policy and communications, the Kaiser Family Foundation is a nonprofit, private operating foundation focusing on the major health care issues facing the United States, with a growing role in global health. The foundation serves as a nonpartisan source of facts, information, and analysis for policymakers, the media, the health care community, and the public. The following documents were highlighted for review: Briefing Info: Kaiser Commission on the Uninsured Brief # 7486 (April 2006) and the National Health Policy Forum Issue Brief No. 810 (March 2006).

http://www.kff.org/medicaid/upload/7486.pdf [Plugin Software Help]

Quality Indicator Database for Home and Community-Based Services

Reviewed 5/18

This compendium of quality indicators included measures related to older adults, adults with physical disabilities, and adults with mental retardation/autism and living at home, in the community, or in long-term care facilities.

No longer available online.

National Direct Service Workforce (DSW) Resource Center

Reviewed 5/14

CMS created the National Direct Service Workforce Resource Center to respond to the large and growing shortage of workers who provide direct care and personal assistance to individuals who need long-term supports and services in the United States. DSW Resource Center brings together experts in the field of direct service workforce policy from organizations including: The Lewin Group, Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute, Institute for the Future of Aging Services, and University of Minnesota's Research and Training Center on Community Living.

http://www.dswresourcecenter.org

HCBS Clearinghouse for the Community Living Exchange Collaborative

Reviewed 5/21

This Web site is maintained by the Research and Training Center on Community Living with support from the National Association of State Directors of Developmental Disabilities Services, HSRI, and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Administration on Developmental Disabilities.

http://www.qualitymall.org/products/prod1.asp?prodid=2272

QIO AHQA—Community-Based Care Resources

Reviewed 5/21

The American Health Quality Association (AHQA) is an educational, not-for-profit national membership association dedicated to promoting and facilitating fundamental change that improves the quality of health care in America. AHQA represents a national network of community-based Quality Improvement Organizations (QIOs) and other professionals working to improve health care quality and patient safety.

http://www.ahqa.org/pub/quality/161_689_2445.cfm

American Health Quality Association

Reviewed 5/21

The professional association for QIOs and professionals working to improve the quality of health care in communities across America.

http://www.ahqa.org/pub/inside/158_716_2487.CFM?CFID=15351779&CFTOKEN=88168427

The Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Aging With Developmental Disabilities (RRTCADD)

Reviewed 5/21

The Center promotes the successful aging of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities in response to physical, cognitive, and environmental changes. Its coordinated research, training, and dissemination activities promote progressive policies and supports to maintain health and function, self-determination, independence, and active engagement in life. The Center is funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research and the National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities and is housed at the University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Applied Health Sciences, Department of Disability and Human Development.

http://www.rrtcadd.org/

Medicaid Infrastructure Grants

Reviewed 5/25

Section 203 of the Ticket to Work—Work Incentives Improvement Act (TWWIIA) of 1999 directed the Secretary of HHS to establish a grant program to support State efforts to enhance employment options for people with disabilities. CMS is the designated HHS agency with administrative responsibility for this grant program. The Medicaid Infrastructure Grant program is authorized for 11 years, and $150 million in funding has been appropriated for the first 5 years of the program. The minimum grant award to an eligible State is $500,000 per fiscal year.

http://www.cms.hhs.gov/TWWIA/03_MIG.asp

National Association of State Units on Aging and 22^nd National Home and Community-Based Services Conference

Reviewed 5/21

Founded in 1964, the National Association of State Units on Aging (NASUA) is a nonprofit association representing the Nation's 56 officially designated State and territorial agencies on aging. NASUA's mission is to advance social, health, and economic policies responsive to the needs of a diverse aging population. In addition, NASUA works to enhance the capacity of its membership to promote the rights, dignity and independence of current and future generations of older persons, adults with disabilities, and their families.

http://www.nasua.org

Aging and Disability Resource Centers (ADRC) Technical Assistance Exchange

The ADRC Technical Assistance Exchange is funded by the Administration on Aging (AoA) and operated in partnership with CMS via its technical assistance center for the Real Choice grantees, the Community Living Exchange Collaborative. The ADRC Technical Assistance Exchange provides a forum for grantee-to-grantee information exchange on policy and program infrastructure development. It also provides direct technical assistance to and between the grantees as they develop their ADRC projects.

http://www.adrc-tae.org/tiki-index.php?page=PublicHomePage

ADRC Toolbox

The Community Living Exchange at Rutgers/National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) provides technical assistance to the Real Choice Systems Change grantees funded by CMS.  The Rutgers/NASHP team has developed a number of resources for grantees, including the ADRC Toolbox. The Toolbox was initially designed to help ADRC grantees understand the AoA-CMS requirements for resource centers and to provide materials that support the design, development, and operation of these centers. Revised in April 2005, the Toolbox now includes more than 250 resources to assist all States interested in streamlining access to home and community-based services.

http://www.nashp.org/node/770

Council on Quality and Leadership

Reviewed 5/10

For more than three decades, the Council on Quality and Leadership (CQL) has been at the forefront of the movement to improve the quality of services and supports for people with intellectual disabilities and people with mental illness.

http://www.thecouncil.org

National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research

Reviewed 5/25

The National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) provides leadership and support for a comprehensive program of research related to the rehabilitation of individuals with disabilities. Programmatic efforts are aimed at improving the lives of individuals with disabilities from birth through adulthood.

http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/osers/nidrr/index.html

Center for Health Care Strategies

Reviewed 5/21

The Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS) is a national nonprofit organization devoted to improving the quality of health services for beneficiaries served by publicly financed care, especially those with chronic illnesses and disabilities. Their work focuses on three main goals: (1) improve health care quality; (2) reduce racial and ethnic disparities; and (3) integrate acute and long-term care.

http://www.chcs.org

National Inventory of Mental Health Quality Measures

Reviewed 5/18

This inventory provides a searchable database of process measures for quality assessment and improvement in mental health and substance abuse care. It includes more than 300 measures developed by government agencies, researchers, clinician/professional organizations, accreditors, health systems/facilities, employer purchasers, consumer coalitions, and commercial organizations. Measure specifications are drawn from developer source materials; a directory of developers provides contact information to obtain further information about individual measures. Information about the measures' clinical rationale and evidence base was developed by staff of the Center for Quality Assessment and Improvement in Mental Health.

http://www.cqaimh.org/index.html

Behavioral Health Headlines Database

Reviewed 5/30

This database abstracts articles related to public sector health and behavioral health services from more than 150 national, State, and local newspapers, trade newsletters, professional journals, national and State reports, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) Tracking staff interviews with key informants. Information is compiled and updated every 2 weeks and reported in State Behavioral Health Headlines (SBHH). The database can be searched by keyword, State, or SBHH issue. It includes information from May 1999 to the present.

http://www.samhsa.gov/SBHH/default.asp

AHRQ Quality Measures Clearinghouse

Reviewed 6/2

This clearinghouse includes practical, ready-to-use tools for measuring and improving the quality of health care. QualityTools is sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

http://www.qualitymeasures.ahrq.gov

MedQuic

Reviewed 5/14

MedQuic is the Medicare Quality Improvement Community. CMS developed this comprehensive online resource of quality improvement information for Medicare's National Quality Improvement Priority Topic.

http://www.medqic.org/dcs/ContentServer?cid=1091760122638&pagename=Medqic%2FMQPage%2FHomepage&c=MQPage

QualityNet

Reviewed 5/28

Established by CMS, QualityNet provides health care quality improvement news, resources, and data reporting tools and applications used by health care providers and others.

http://www.qualitynet.org/dcs/ContentServer?pagename=QnetPublic/Page/QnetHomepage

Quality Measures Management Information System

Reviewed 5/28

This system is an electronic database of the health care quality measures CMS uses in its broad quality improvement and public reporting efforts.

http://www.qualitynet.org/qmis

MLN Matters (formerly known as Medlearn Matters)

Reviewed 5/26

The Medicare Learning Network uses a variety of mechanisms, such as national educational articles, brochures, fact sheets, Web-based training courses, and videos to deliver a planned and coordinated provider education program. The goal is to provide timely, easy-to-understand educational materials to accompany the release of new or revised Medicare Program policies.

http://www.cms.hhs.gov/MLNMattersArticles/downloads/SE0620.pdf [Plugin Software Help]

Kaiser statehealthfacts.org

Reviewed 5/28

Statehealthfacts.org is a project of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and is designed to provide free, up-to-date, and easy-to-use health data on all 50 States.

http://www.statehealthfacts.org

National Academy for State Health Policy

Reviewed 5/26

The National Academy for State Health Policy (NASHP) is an independent academy of State health policymakers working together to identify emerging issues, develop policy solutions, and improve State health policy and practice. NASHP's work on quality and patient safety is aimed at assisting State officials in efforts to ensure that the health care delivery system meets patients' needs and is based on the best scientific knowledge so that care is safe, effective, patient centered, timely, efficient, and equitable.

http://www.nashp.org

State Adverse Event Reporting Systems

Reviewed 5/14

As of September 2005, half of all States had passed legislation, regulation, or executive orders related to hospital reporting of adverse events. Twenty-four of the systems are mandatory reporting systems and one is voluntary. Many of the reporting requirements are intended to hold health care facilities accountable for weaknesses in their systems.

http://www.nashp.org/taxonomy/term/46

Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities

Reviewed 5/25

Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF) International is an independent, nonprofit accreditor of human service providers in the areas of aging services, behavioral health, child and youth services, DMEPOS (durable medical equipment, prosthetics, orthotics, and supplies), employment and community services, and medical rehabilitation. The CARF family of organizations currently accredits approximately 5,000 providers at more than 17,000 locations in the United States, Canada, Western Europe, and South America. Close to 6 million persons of all ages are served annually by CARF-accredited providers.

http://www.carf.org

National Quality Forum

Reviewed 5/25

The National Quality Forum (NQF) is a not-for-profit membership organization created to develop and implement a national strategy for health care quality measurement and reporting.

http://www.qualityforum.org

National Committee for Quality Assurance

Reviewed 5/25

The National Committee for Quality Assurance is a private, 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving health care quality. Organizations incorporating the seal into advertising and marketing materials must first pass a rigorous, comprehensive review and must annually report on their performance.

http://www.ncqa.org

FAACT Document Repository

Reviewed 5/28

FACCT (Foundation for Accountability), a national nonprofit organization, recently decided to close its operations after 9 years of advocacy for an accountable heath care system in which consumers are partners who help shape the delivery of care. David Lansky, president of FACCT, has since joined the Markle Foundation as a director of the Health Program, which has long supported and collaborated with FACCT on health care quality and consumer outreach programs.

http://www.markle.org/resources/facct/index.php

Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations

Reviewed 5/9

The Joint Commission was developed to continuously improve the safety and quality of care provided to the public through the provision of health care accreditation and related services that support performance improvement in health care organizations.

http://www.jointcommission.org

Center for Health Systems Research and Analysis

Reviewed 5/10

The Center for Health Systems Research and Analysis (CHSRA) was formed in 1973 as a collaborative effort between the departments of Industrial Engineering and Preventive Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. At CHSRA, researchers seek to improve long-term care and health systems by creating performance measures and developing information and decision support systems.

http://www.chsra.wisc.edu

National Association for Home Care & Hospice

Reviewed 5/9

The National Association for Home Care & Hospice is the Nation's largest trade association representing the interests and concerns of home care agencies, hospices, home care aide organizations, and medical equipment suppliers.

http://www.nahc.org

American Network of Community Options and Resources 

Reviewed 5/9

American Network of Community Options and Resources (ANCOR) is a nonprofit trade association representing private providers who provide supports and services to people with disabilities. ANCOR's efforts in the area of public policy, Federal legislative and regulatory initiatives, judicial results, State-level initiatives, and culling of leading practices have uniquely positioned it as the national presence for private providers.

http://www.ANCOR.org

American Academy of Home Care Physicians

Reviewed 5/9

Since 1988, the American Academy of Home Care Physicians has served the needs of thousands of physicians and related professionals and agencies interested in improving care of patients in the home.

http://www.aahcp.org

Home Healthcare Nurses Association

Reviewed 5/9

The Home Healthcare Nurses Association (HHNA) is a national professional nursing organization of members involved in home health care practice, education, administration, and research. HHNA became an affiliate of the National Association for Home Care & Hospice in 1999.

http://www.hhna.org

Personal Assistance Center

Reviewed 5/9

The Center for Personal Assistance Services provides research, training, dissemination, and technical assistance on issues of personal assistance services (PAS) in the United States.

http://www.pascenter.org

Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative

Reviewed 5/3

The Data Resource Center for Child and Adolescent Health is a project of the Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative (CAHMI) supported by Cooperative Agreement 1-U59-MC06980-01 from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Health Resources and Services Administration, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

http://www.childhealthdata.org/content/Default.aspx

Google

Reviewed 5/27

General search database.

http://www.google.com

Center for Gerontology and Health Care Research

Reviewed 3/26/07

The Health Assessment Questionnaire can be found on this Brown University site.

http://www.chcr.brown.edu/pcoc/EHAQDESCRSCORINGHAQ372.PDF (Plugin Software Help)

Continuity of Care Task Group, Assessment Catalog

Reviewed 3/20/07

This Web site includes an online catalog of functional assessment tools, with links to individual tools.

http://continuityofcaretaskgroup.pbwiki.com/AssessmentCatalog

Ambulatory Quality alliance

Reviewed 3/21/07

In September 2004, the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), the American College of Physicians (ACP), America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) joined together to lead an effort for determining, under the most expedient timeframe, how to most effectively and efficiently improve performance measurement, data aggregation, and reporting in the ambulatory care setting. Originally known as the Ambulatory Care Quality Alliance, the coalition is now known as the AQA alliance because its mission has broadened to incorporate all areas of physician practice.

http://www.aqaalliance.org/performancewg.htm

Mental Health Statistics Improvement Program

Review 5/14/07

A group called the Mental Health Statistics Improvement Program (MHSIP) Policy Group has been working to develop standards for mental health data for the last 20 years. A manual has been developed through the efforts of this group, supported by the Federal Center for Mental Health Services and informed by people who receive mental health services, provide services, and manage services.

http://www.mhsip.org

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services: Home Health Quality Initiatives

Reviewed 5/15/07

In 2000, as part of a broad quality improvement initiative, the Federal Government began requiring every Medicare-certified home health agency to complete and submit health assessment information for their clients. The instrument/data collection tool used to collect and report performance data by home health agencies is called the Outcome and Assessment Information Set (OASIS). Since fall 2003, CMS has posted on www.medicare.gov a subset of OASIS-based quality performance information showing how well home health agencies assist their patients in regaining or maintaining their ability to function. Measures of how well people can get along in their homes performing activities of daily living (ADLs) form a core of the measures, but these are supplemented with questions about physical status and two use-of-service measures (hospitalization and emergent care).

http://www.cms.hhs.gov/HomeHealthQualityInits/10_HHQIQualityMeasures.asp#TopOfPage

Center for Outcome Analysis

Reviewed 5/15/07

The Center for Outcome Analysis (COA) is a nonprofit firm founded in 1985 to perform evaluation, research, and demonstration projects in the human services and health care services.   COA is founded on the principle that service agencies should be guided by the measurable individual quality-of-life outcomes of their services and supports.   Many aspects of quality of life are reliably measurable, and they should be measured. The ultimate unit of accountability for human services must become the quality of life of the people receiving supports.

http://www.outcomeanalysis.com

Center for Outcome Measurement in Brain Injury

Reviewed 6/4/07

The Center for Outcome Measurement in Brain Injury (COMBI) is an online resource for those needing detailed information and support with regard to outcome measures for brain injuries.

http://tbims.org/combi

National Rehabilitation Information Center

Reviewed on 5/28/07

The National Rehabilitation Information Center (NARIC) Web site contains disability- and rehabilitation-oriented information organized in a variety of user-friendly formats. The site includes online publications, searchable databases, and timely reference and referral data.

http://www.naric.com