Could The CARE Postacute Assessment Tool Replace The MDS?
Potentially coming to SNFs, home health, inpatient rehab facilities and long-term care hospitals: A single post-acute assessment tool that currently raises more questions than there are answers. One thing for certain: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services plans to use the Medicare Continuity Assessment Record and Evaluation (CARE) instrument in the Postacute Care Payment Reform Demonstration, which is scheduled to roll out in January 2008 and extend through 2009. The tool will measure the health and functional status of Medicare acute discharges and measure changes in severity and other outcomes for postacute care patients, according to the CMS contractor for the project, RTI International. CMS goal is to develop payment groups across post-acute settings. Red-hot question: Could the CARE instrument replace the MDS? The American Health Care Associations Sandra Fitzler, RN, asked CMS folks that key question at a recent CMS-sponsored Open Door Forum. And no one knows, says Fitzler,
