Improving the Quality of Care and Resident Satisfaction in Medicaid Nursing Facilities Across Tennessee
NRC Health, the leader in supporting and advancing state quality incentive programs and associations across the U.S., announced a new partnership with TennCare, Tennessee’s Medicaid program, to improve resident satisfaction, quality of care, and quality of life in Medicaid certified nursing homes across the state.
TennCare is the state of Tennessee’s Medicaid program which provides health insurance to approximately 1.3 million low-income Tennesseans including pregnant women, children, caretaker relatives of dependent children and older adults, and adults with disabilities.
Rich Kortum, director of strategic partnerships at NRC Health stated, “Part of our mission at NRC Health is to provide value-based solutions that support state quality incentive programs and improve quality and satisfaction. TennCare has been recognized for its advanced Medicaid program, but as any good health care organization knows, the road to improvement is never-ending. We look forward to working together to further develop the program and help TennCare improve care for thousands of residents in Tennessee’s nursing facilities.”
Strengthening Tennessee’s commitment to providing high quality, person-centered care and to system-wide payment reform, TennCare will leverage NRC Health’s resident, family and staff satisfaction survey tools to implement standardized measurement methodologies within its contracted nursing facilities as part of the QuILTSS initiative. The goal is to measure quality in ways that most impact the day-to-day lives of nursing home residents, and to align Medicaid payment for nursing facility care with person-centered outcomes in order to help drive quality improvement.
“Measuring person-centered care practices and the satisfaction of residents, families, and staff in a consistent way will help us better understand the quality of care provided in nursing homes across Tennessee,” said Patti Killingsworth, TennCare Chief of Long-Term Services and Supports. “More importantly, it will help us drive quality improvement in ways that most impact people’s lives. We have worked closely with the Tennessee Health Care Association and other stakeholders to identify measurement tools and processes that will best meet the needs of the industry in Tennessee and the goals of the QuILTSS initiative. We look forward to working with NRC Health and are incredibly grateful to all of our partners for their time, commitment, and invaluable input.”
