The Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS’) Assistant Secretary of Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) requests information on how providers and health plans serving Medicare beneficiaries work to improve health outcomes for patients with social risk factors.
The request for information (RFI) relates to a provision of the Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation (IMPACT) Act of 2014 that calls for ASPE to conduct a study on the effect of individuals’ socioeconomic status on quality measures and measures of resource use under the Medicare program. As part of this work, ASPE produced a 2016 Report to Congress focused on information currently available in Medicare data.
The RFI specifically seeks information on:
- how plans and providers identify beneficiaries with social risk factors;
- approaches plans and providers have used to meet the needs of beneficiaries with social risk factors;
- evidence on the effect of these approaches on quality outcomes and the total cost of care; and
- how providers disentangle and address beneficiaries’ social and medical risks.
We strongly encourage essential hospitals to submit individual comments with specific examples of how your institution addresses social risk factors.
Comments will be accepted through Nov. 16 and should be submitted to ASPEImpactStudy@hhs.gov.
Contact Senior Director of Policy Erin O’Malley at eomalley@essentialhospitals.org with questions.