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Authors Posts by Melissa Dehoff

Melissa Dehoff

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Melissa Dehoff is responsible for all medical rehabilitation and brain injury service issues. Ms. Dehoff attends multiple state-level meetings to advocate on behalf of members on brain injury and rehabilitation issues and is a member of the Department of Health Traumatic Brain Injury Advisory Board.

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The next Managed Long-Term Services and Supports (MLTSS) Subcommittee meeting will be held on March 1, 2022, as a webinar from 10:00 am–1:00 pm.

You can register for the meeting here. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar. Remote captioning and streaming services will be provided; if you require these services, please visit here. If you require another accommodation, including an alternative method for submitting questions or comments about meeting topics, please send an email no later than February 18, 2022, so other accommodations can be scheduled.

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On February 2, 2022, the monthly Managed Long-Term Services and Supports (MLTSS) Subcommittee held their monthly meeting. The handouts referenced and shared during this monthly meeting are provided below:

The next MLTSS Subcommittee meeting is scheduled for March 1, 2022.

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The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has released the updated Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility (IRF) Provider Preview Reports. These reports contain provider performance scores for quality measures and contain data submitted by IRFs from Quarter 3 (Q3) 2020 through Quarter 2 (Q2) 2021.

Providers have until February 25, 2022, to review their performance data. Providers can request CMS review their data during the preview period if they believe the scores are inaccurate. The final reports will be published on Care Compare and Provider Data Catalog (PDC) during the March 2022 refresh of the websites. For additional information, visit the CMS IRF QRP Public Reporting website.

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The Council on Brain Injury (CoBI) has announced an upcoming clinical forum entitled “Brain Injury Across the Pediatric Lifespan” on February 8, 2022, from 3:30 pm–5:00 pm. The presentation and discussion will be conducted by Dr. Juliet Haarbauer-Krupa.

Juliet Haarbauer-Krupa, PhD, is a senior health scientist on the Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Team in the Division of Injury Prevention (DIP) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Injury Center. As a health scientist, her role on the TBI team is to devise research projects and products to better understand trends in TBI in the United States and to improve health outcomes for individuals living with a TBI. She is Project Lead on the Report to Congress on the Management of Traumatic Brain Injury in Children and a scientific collaborator for clinical decision support and return to school projects in the division.

This webinar is intended for a professional audience and is free of charge. Attendees must register prior to the webinar. Questions about the webinar should be directed to MJ Schmidt via email.

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The Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Advisory Board (Board), established under section 1252 of the Federal Traumatic Brain Injury Act of 1996 (42 U.S.C.A. § 300d-52), will hold a virtual public meeting on February 4, 2022. Due to health concerns related to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), the virtual public meeting will be conducted by means of Microsoft Teams from 10:00 am–3:00 pm.

Meeting materials will be sent out before the virtual public meeting and will also be available on the Board’s website. Questions should be directed to Nicole Johnson. To join the Microsoft Teams meeting, call (267) 332-8737. The conference ID is 126 841 107#.

The Department of Health’s (DOH) Head Injury Program (HIP) strives to ensure that eligible individuals who have a TBI receive high quality rehabilitative services aimed at reducing functional limitations and improving quality of life. The TBI Board assists the DOH in understanding and meeting the needs of persons living with traumatic brain injury and their families. This quarterly virtual public meeting will provide updates on a variety of topics, including the number of people served by HIP. In addition, meeting participants will discuss budgetary and programmatic issues, community programs relating to traumatic brain injury, and available advocacy opportunities.

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The Administration for Community Living (ACL) has announced a virtual traumatic brain injury (TBI) stakeholder day planned for March 8, 2022, from 12:00 pm–4:30 pm. This free event will be held via webinar, and attendees will spend the afternoon talking about important issues around TBI services, supports, and systems.

Attendees will hear from brain injury survivors, family members, support networks, and state and federal representatives. This year’s sessions include Survivor Engagement Strategies, Domestic Violence and the Effect on Children, Effective Partnerships with Behavioral Health with a Focus on Suicide, and Effective Strategies for Using and Leveraging Data.

Individuals interested in participating should register here.

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The Medicare Payment Advisory Committee (MedPAC) voted last week and unanimously recommended a five percent payment reduction for inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs), skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), and home health agencies (HHAs). There was no additional feedback provided with this recommendation; however, additional information should be provided in their upcoming March 2022 report to Congress.

Also worth noting was that MedPAC discussed its mandated report related to designing a value incentive program (VIP) for post-acute care (PAC). This report is required under the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021, and this was the commission’s second session dedicated to development of the PAC VIP. The report is due to Congress by March 15, 2022. Due to the limited time to develop the report, MedPAC asserted it would not be making a formal recommendation in the March Report to Congress. Also during this session, MedPAC shared its plan to submit its separate report on a unified post-acute care payment prototype to Congress in 2023.

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The next Managed Long-Term Services and Supports Subcommittee (MLTSS) meeting is scheduled for February 2, 2022, from 10:00 am–1:00 pm.

To participate in the meeting via webinar, please register by visiting here. The Office of Long-Term Living (OLTL) encourages those participating by webinar to register early. Registrants will then receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

Dial-In Number:
1 (914) 614-3221
Access Code: 300-175-489

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A national stakeholder call with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure and her leadership team has been scheduled for January 18, 2022, from 1:00 pm–1:45 pm. Agenda topics include:

  • The legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King;
  • CMS strategic vision and key 2021 accomplishments; and
  • 2022 goals.

To participate in the call, please register here.

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Image by Dirk Wouters from Pixabay

In today’s Federal Register, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published a proposed rule that included updates to the Medicare Advantage program. Contained within this proposed rule is a Request for Information (RFI): Prior Authorization for Hospital Transfers to Post-Acute Care (PAC) Settings During a Public Health Emergency (PHE). The RFI highlights several concerns, including the fact that providers often wait up to three days for authorization determinations, and that a high rate of MA requests are initially denied, all of which hinder the ability of hospitals to maximize capacity during a public health emergency (PHE). The RFI requests several areas for feedback, including the overall impact of prior authorization on hospitals and patient care, the denial rates and associated burden on providers, and the consequences of delayed patient transfers.

Members are encouraged to share any direct examples of these prior authorization issues with Melissa Dehoff, Director, Rehabilitation Services Division. In addition, this issue will be discussed during the upcoming Outpatient Rehabilitation Committee and Medical Rehabilitation Committee meetings.

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