Workshop to Develp a Research Agenda on Appropriate Settings for Rehabilitation

摘要

Bob Kuhl, director of the Division of Institutional Post Acute Care in the Chronic Care Policy Group of CMS, welcomed participants to the Workshop to Develop a Research Agenda on Appropriate Settings for Rehabilitation. Michael Weinrich, M.D., director of the National Center for Medical Rehabilitation Research (NCMRR) within the NICHD, explained that the workshop constituted the meeting specified in the CMS final rule (69 FR 25752) on the classification criteria for qualification as an inpatient rehabilitation facility (IRF). With the help of the NICHD, the CMS was convening the panel of experts to help develop a research agenda on appropriate settings for providing rehabilitation care. Dr. Weinrich clarified that, as part of the NIH, the NICHD is charged with improving the nation's health through research; the Institute is not authorized to advise other federal agencies on policy. Similarly, the workshop was not convened under Federal Advisory Committee Act rules, so the expert panel would not be providing consensus recommendations to the CMS. However, Dr. Weinrich encouraged all participants to voice their opinions and to focus on the topic of a research agenda, rather than on the CMS final 75-percent rule. Specifically, he asked the panel to consider patients in six categories--total joint replacement, pulmonary and cardiac rehabilitation, cancer and transplant rehabilitation, back surgery rehabilitation, hip fracture rehabilitation, and chronic pain.