Washington, DC – Today, President Obama signed into law H.R. 4994, the Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation Act of 2014 (IMPACT Act), bipartisan legislation aimed at strengthening and improving post-acute care for Medicare beneficiaries while bringing about more accountable, quality-driven benefits to patients.  The IMPACT Act also strengthens Medicare’s oversight of hospice care by ensuring that Medicare dollars are spent efficiently and that high quality care is provided.

The bill was introduced in the House by Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) and Ranking Member Sander Levin (D-MI).

The IMPACT Act moves forward on the long-standing policy goal of collecting standardized data from Medicare post-acute care (PAC) providers.  It will align Medicare PAC providers and create a more accountable, quality-driven PAC benefit.

Specifically, the IMPACT Act requires data standardization that enables Medicare to:

• Compare quality across different PAC settings;

• Improve hospital and PAC discharge planning; and,

• Use this information to reform PAC payments (via site neutral or bundled payments or some other reform) while ensuring continued beneficiary access to the most appropriate setting of care.

This information will allow future payment reforms to be driven by quality and efficiency while protecting beneficiary access to appropriate services.

The IMPACT Act was largely shaped by input received from the post-acute care community after a discussion draft was released in March of this year, resulting in policy and legislative recommendations from more than 70 stakeholders in the healthcare community.

For more information on the IMPACT Act, please click here.

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