Discharge Planning: The New Focus on Patient Choice and Choosing Post-Acute Providers

MedPAC, the committee that reports to Congress on Medicare, has had recent discussions on evaluating current discharge planning procedures. In this article, we discuss possible changes ahead in the ways patients and discharge planners may choose post-acute providers.

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) is discussing ways to modify the existing discharge planning process. The discussion includes leveraging discharge planner recommendations to use high-quality providers, and factors influencing beneficiaries’ choice of PAC providers.

Highlights of the discussion:

• Helping beneficiaries select better quality providers should be a goal of the discharge planning process.
• Providing hospital discharge planners with tools and authority to recommend high-quality providers to advance the goal.
• Identify high-quality PAC providers necessary to achieve the objective.

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