What is the eLTSS Initiative?
The eLTSS Initiative is a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) sponsored project managed under the Office of National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC). This initiative is driven by the requirements of the CMS Testing Experience and Functional Tools (TEFT) in a community-based long-term services and supports (CB-LTSS) Planning and Demonstration Grant Program. The eLTSS Initiative specifically focuses on facilitating one of the four TEFT Grant Program Requirements, which is identification and testing of electronic standards for an LTSS Plan.
Testing Experience and Functional Tools (TEFT) is a grant program designed to field test an experience survey and a set of functional assessment items, demonstrate usability of personal health records, and identify a standard for an electronic LTSS plan. TEFT grants were awarded to nine qualified states in March 2014. To learn more about the grant program, visit: http://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid-chip-program-information/by-topics/delivery-systems/grant-programs/teft-program.html
What is an eLTSS Plan?
An eLTSS Plan is a structured, longitudinal person-centered service plan that can be exchanged electronically across multiple community-based LTSS settings, institutional settings (e.g. hospital, primary care office, nursing home) and with beneficiaries and payers. Content or information contained within an eLTSS Plan is specific to the types of service rendered and information collected for CB-LTSS.
The eLTSS Plan consists of several component parts presented as domains and sub-domains. Each sub-domain consists of a series of question and answer fields. These fields are completed during the eLTSS Plan development process. Information within these fields is intended to present a holistic view of an LTSS beneficiary’s goals and priorities related to the beneficiary’s needs. Proposed domains for the eLTSS Plan are Person Information; Health, Wellness and Rights; Service Planning and Coordination; and Family. Proposed cross-cutting domains are Goals; Priorities; Issues; Interventions; and Units of Service.
The eLTSS plan is jointly created within a CB-LTSS setting by an authorized LTSS Provider and the individual who will receive services. A Care Plan or Plan of Care is generally developed within a clinical or institutionally based environment like a hospital, primary care office, nursing home or skilled nursing facility by an authorized clinical provider. The eLTSS Plan consists of information that is not captured in a Care Plan, such as social and behavioral determinants to include work, community inclusion, choice and decision-making and personal finance information. The eLTSS Plan is not meant to replace the Care Plan or Plan of Care. However, parts of an eLTSS Plan may contain information already captured in a Care Plan or Plan of Care such as demographics, medications, diet and nutrition.
The success of the eLTSS Initiative relies on the participation of a wide range of stakeholders including LTSS and HCBS providers, Health IT vendors, health systems, social systems, implementers, standards development organizations, consumer/individual advocates and the general public. Stakeholders must have confidence not only in the validity and value of the content being collected and shared as part of a person-centered eLTSS Plan, but also in the effectiveness of the workflows established to support that data collection and exchange. Extending this pilot program beyond the seven TEFT Grantee states will help ensure a broader representation of eLTSS stakeholders in addition to the ability to test the validity and value of the identified business case in a wider variety of clinical and non-clinical settings. All organizations are welcome and encouraged to participate in the pilot program and to contribute to the identification of an eLTSS Plan standard.
Any organization interested in participating in an eLTSS Pilot is encouraged to complete the eLTSS Pilot Interest Survey at eLTSS Pilot Interest Survey. Upon completion of the survey the eLTSS support team can identify what role you are interested in playing for the pilot demonstration and can better partner you with other pilot organizations. The eLTSS Pilot Workgroup will officially kick off in Fall 2015. Further information regarding the Pilot WG will be made available on the eLTSS Initiative home page: eLTSS Home
To learn more about the Initiative, we encourage new participants to review two key eLTSS documents, the eLTSS Project Charter and eLTSS Use Case. Both documents can be viewed and downloaded from the eLTSS Home Page. All weekly public meetings are recorded and artifacts are made available on the Past Meetings site . Should you have additional questions, please reach out to the eLTSS Project Manger, Amber Patel (ayp@securityrs.com) or eLTSS Project Support, Taima Gomez (taima.gomez@carradora.com).
Several resources and tools are available to eLTSS pilots to help in planning and executing their pilot activities. These pilot guidance artifacts include documentation on how to incrementally approach an eLTSS pilot, templates for use in formulating and presenting a Pilot Plan, candidate standards and technologies that are available to support a pilot, sample data sets that can be used in the collection and exchange of eLTSS Plan information, considerations piloting organizations should take into account in their planning, templates for recording and evaluating pilot activity results, and other resource documentation. This guidance is available to the public on the eLTSS Pilot Page.