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Texas Hospital Association October 22, 2012 Rochelle Archuleta, AHA Policy Aimee Hartlage, AHA Federal Relations S. 1486 LTCH Improvement Act Background & Proposed Modifications 2 LTCHs treat far greater proportion of patients with Level 4 SOI (extreme severity) 3 Goals for LTCH Criteria • Demonstrate a unique and valuable role for LTCHs. • Distinguish LTCHs from all other settings. (general acute hospitals; other post-acute providers) • Concentrate LTCHs on highest complexity, long-stay patients • Proactively define LTCHs, rather than wait for CMS. – Pending CMS proposal likely to be harsh on LTCHs. • Achieve regulatory stability through meaningful minimum standards. • Provide bridge to the future delivery system reforms and common patient assessment tool. – Making a strong value case for LTCHs helps preserve future role for LTCHs • Achieve support from AHA’s LTCH members. • Generate savings for Congress. 4 How do the criteria work? • Implement new minimum standards for LTCH patients and facilities. • Provide policymakers with an insurance policy (ie, the retrospective 70% Rule facility criterion) that LTCHs are treating high acuity patients. • Prohibit LTCHs from admitting patients suitable for inpatient rehab and inpatient psych level care. • Require all LTCHs to provide ventilator weaning services. (19 LTCHs do not) • Proposal does not alter the existing requirement that LTCHs maintain an average length of stay greater than 25 days. 5 How were the criteria developed? • Stage I. A consensus panel of experts developed the criteria proposal in 2010. – Panel: 14 hospital representatives, including 10 NFP reps • Stage II. Following extensive advocacy of the criteria, as introduced in S.1486, AHA convened a smaller panel to refine the original proposal. − Panel: 9 hospital representatives, including 6 NFP reps • Data Analysis. Extensive data analysis by The Moran Company from Summer 2010 through present has validated the criteria framework. – The analysis confirmed that the criteria proposal would focus LTCHs on treating the highest overall acuity level relative to all other health settings. 6 For S1486 details, see At-A-Glance document. www.aha.org/ltch S.1486 Criteria Framework Patient Admission Criteria 7 Facility Criteria Retrospective Facility Criterion (70% Rule) Proposed Refinements to Criteria Provisions in S.1486 Criteria Modifications: Psych Patients Revise Preadmission Criteria and Add New Patient Admissions Criterion: LTCHs shall not admit patients who, at the time of admission, have a primary medical need of inpatient psychiatric care. • • • • 9 S.1486: Prohibits IRF-like patients. Does not address psych patients. Objective: Prohibit admission of rehab and psych patients to maximize the LTCH distinction from IRF and IPF settings. Prohibited psych patients are identified by their admitting diagnosis since this admission criterion would be applied by the LTHC physician conducting the patient admission evaluation. Also a technical change to add the S.1486 prohibition on rehabilitation patients to the preadmission screening criteria, in addition to the admission criteria. Admissions Criteria: Secondary Diagnoses Criteria Refinement: Require a minimum of 5 secondary diagnoses for an LTCH admission. • S.1486: At least 2 secondary diagnoses required • Objective: – Raise the standard. – Set minimum standard to align with what knowledge is available to the LTCH physician at the point of admission. 10 Admissions Criteria: Continued Stays Criteria Modification: Narrow the provision S.1486: Continued stay assessments must occur at least weekly. For cases that no longer need hospital-level care and lack a safe discharge option, for the remaining days, pay LTCH PPS per diem, up to the DRG. – Must notify the bene of the continued stay assessment outcome. – Must continue to actively seek a safe discharge option. • Maintain S.1486’s requirement for weekly continued stay assessments. • Eliminate the payment component of this provision. – Leave this to the Medicare manual provisions. 11 Additional Facility Criterion: Vent Services New Facility Criterion: LTCHs must have the equipment and clinical personnel needed to provide ventilator weaning services. S.1486: Does not require vent services. Background: – LTCHs are distinguished by the excellence of their specialized ventilator-weaning programs. – Policy analysis shows that LTCHs bring unique value to the Medicare program for beneficiaries receiving ventilator services. 12 “70% Rule” 2.0 Streamline the 70% Rule version in S.1486: • • • • • 13 70% threshold Cases with at least 3 CC/MCCs Cases with a ventilator procedure code will count Remove LOS criterion Remove STACH Outlier criterion. CC/MCCs • CMS: The MS-DRG CC/MCCs target sicker patients; • CC/MCCs are correlated with the APR-DRG SOI; and • CC/MCC data are administratively feasible to CMS. 14 Other S.1486 Changes • Add 2-year moratorium on LTCH hospitals, satellites and beds – 2-year extension is seamless with MMSEA’s 5-year moratorium. – Eliminate the MMSEA moratorium exceptions • 2-year freeze of 25% Rule (at 50%/75% levels) – Instead of 25% Rule elimination under S.1486 – Extend CMS’s 25% Rule relief through discharges on and before Sept 30, 2014. • Removed provision seeking to eliminate the 1time budget neutrality adjustment • Removed provision seeking to eliminate the very short stay outlier policy 15 Achieving Compliance Transition assistance for LTCHs that are noncompliant with the “70% Rule” • Multi-Year Phase-in • • • 6-month cure period for LTCHs that fail 70% Rule test. • 16 2-year phase-in for not-for-profit and for-profit LTCHs • Year 1: 60%; Year 2: 70% 3-year phase in for the govt-owned LTCHS • Year 1: 60%; Year 2: 65%; Year 3: 70% Modeled after existing cure period for LTCH 25-day ALOS requirement. Timing Seamless extension of MMSEA moratorium and CMS’s new 25% Rule relief. Start Date Criteria OPTIONS: Ongoing -- 6 months after enactment -- October 1, 2012 -- Other? Moratorium Dec 29, 2012 (Seamless with end of MMSEA moratorium) 25% Rule Relief Discharges beginning October 1, 2012 17 End Date Dec 28, 2014 Discharges through Sept 30, 2014 Facility Compliance NFP v FP Facility Compliance Levels: When you combine the compliant and near-compliant (within 10%) LTCHs, facility compliance levels are very close for NFP and FP LTCHs. 70% Rule Compliance Overall Case Compliance Overall Facility Compliance FP Facility Compliance NFP Facility Compliance Govt-Owned Fac. Compliance Compliant + Near Compliant Facilities For-Profit Compliant + Near Compliant Not-For-Profit Compliant + Near Compliant AHA Analysis 80% 82% 86% 79% 33% 91% 94% 91% "Near compliers" are within 10% of compliance with the 70% Rule. 18 Criteria Encourage High Acuity The criteria proposal favors every LTCH that treats a high acuity patient mix. • 100% of LTCHs will have to modify their admissions standards to reflect these more stringent standards; – • • • 19 This proposal is about the type of patients of treated in LTCHs; not about the ownership status of LTCHs; The proposal intentionally raises the bar for LTCH admissions to build credibility with Congress and other policymakers; and demonstrate LTCH value by ensuring a level of service that is unmatched by any other setting. A very high rate of NFP LTCHs (79%) comply with the proposal, including very highly regarded NFP LTCHs (e.g., Partners; CHRISTUS; RML; Barlow). When compliant and near-compliant (within 10%) LTCHs are combined, FP (94%) and NFP (91%) compliance levels are very similar. Examining Compliers vs. Non-compliers Percent of Cases in Excluded Categories as a Percent of All Cases Within Compliant, Non-Compliant and All LTCHs 3.5% 3.0% Percentage of Total Cases 3.0% 2.5% 2.2% 2.0% 1.5% 1.0% Compliant LTCHs (N=357) 1.3% 1.2% 1.0% 0.8% 0.7% Non-Compliant LTCHs (N=77) 0.7% 0.4% 0.5% 0.0% Psych Cases Source: 2011 MedPAR Data, POS Data, and LTCH Impact File 20 All LTCHs (N=434) Rehab Cases Cases with < 5 SDX Examining Compliers vs. Non-compliers Average Number of CC/MCCs 6.0 5.2 5.3 Average # of CC/MCCs 5.0 4.0 3.0 2.7 2.0 1.0 0.0 All LTCHs (N=434) Compliant + Near-Compliant Non-Compliant LTCHs Excl. LTCHs (N=397) Near-Compliant (N=37) Analysis of the 2011 Medicare Provider Analysis and Review (MedPAR) dataset (March 2012 update). 21 LTCH Payments by Category Category Total Medicare Payment (2011 MEDPAR) ($ in Millions) < 5 SDX Rehab Psych Non-compliant cases Compliant cases All Cases All Cases minus Exclusions 22 $24 $25 $27 $691 $4,678 $5,445 $5,369 Rochelle Archuleta AHA Policy [email protected] Aimee Hartlage AHA Federal Relations [email protected] 23