Background
- Health First Colorado is required by statute to have an inpatient hospital review program (Colorado Revised Statutes, 25.5-4-402. Providers - hospital reimbursement - hospital review program - rules.)
- RAEs and hospitals provided input prior to implementation of IHRP 2.0 to tailor a program to create value.
- IHRP 2.0 duplicated other HCPF programs designed to help with hard-to-place, high need patients, and effective transitions of care.
- While we cannot abandon an inpatient hospital review program, we can tailor and enhance it to be of the most use to hospitals and RAEs.
Timeline
- July 11, 2024 – IHT announced to Joint Operating Committee with follow up communication on webpage and via email
- September 9, 2024 – IHT go-live
Inpatient Hospital Transitions (IHT)
Inpatient Hospital Transitions are:
- Not associated with authorization for inpatient stay or claims payment.
- A mechanism for hospitals to share focused member-specific information with the RAEs to ensure successful discharge planning.
- The first step in the official communication from hospitals to the RAEs when the hospitals need assistance for a member discharge or transition.
- Focused on complex inpatient hospital transitions from one level of care to another.
Inpatient Hospital Transitions Components
- Hospitals will follow the current process of submitting the request for RAE assistance as part of the newly designed “IHT Questionnaire” housed in Acentra’s PAR Platform (Atrezzo).
- Includes all hospitalized non- Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) patients, in which the hospital determines to have a complex discharge plan, rather than a subset of select diagnosis.
- All inpatients (non-NICU) at hospital day 30 and every 30 days thereafter.
- NICU members only:
- Hospitals need only submit one time on every NICU admission
- NICU Level I: Well Newborn Nursery and NICU Level II: Special Care Nursery are exempt.
IHT System Components for RAEs
- IHT NICU Spec Document
- IHT Non-NICU Spec Document
- Inpatient Hospital Transitions (IHT) NICU Questionnaire
- Inpatient Hospital Transitions (IHT) Non-NICU Questionnaire
Training
Additional Training
Frequent Asked Questions
IHT Joint Operating Committee (JOC)
The IHT Joint Operating Committee (JOC) will continue to meet monthly to discuss questions, issues, results and best practices. Upcoming meetings include:
- October 3, 2024 1:00-2:00 p.m.
- November 14, 2024 1:00-2:00 p.m.
- December 5, 2024 1:00-2:00 p.m.
To be added to the JOC Meeting calendar invite, please send your name, facility name and your email address to hcpf_um@state.co.us.
Contact either the ColoradoPAR Program Utilization Management (UM) Team at hcpf_um@state.co.us or Acentra® (formerly Kepro) Provider Relations at COproviderissue@acentra.com with questions or for additional assistance.
Hospital Transformation Program (HTP)
The goal of the HTP is to improve the quality of hospital care provided to Health First Colorado (Colorado's Medicaid program) members by tying provider fee-funded hospital payments to quality-based initiatives. All hospitals that selected the Population Health/Total Cost of Care measure SW-PH1 must participate in the Inpatient Hospital Transitions (IHT) program and make at least one IHT referral, in accordance with the IHT guidelines.
Contact Information
Colorado PAR Program UM Team: hcpf_um@state.co.us
Acentra Provider Relations: coproviderissue@acentra.com