Here’s the outline of Pennsylvania’s objectives, expected outcomes, timeline and partners.

Project Overview

The PA Link to Aging and Disability Resources in full partnership with the PA Departments of Aging, Public Welfare, Military and Veteran’s Affairs and key stakeholders will, in the course of this one year project, develop an action plan that will be used to implement a coordinated and integrated “No Wrong Door” (NWD) system for all populations and payers to access long term services and support. The NWD system will be designed through facilitated input from the public, consumers, providers and other stakeholders with additional research as necessary. Its foundation will be intense collaborative partnerships and expanded use of new and shared technology that will enable individuals to access and maintain services more efficiently and effectively. The goal of this project is to develop a specific plan of action to implement the ACL/CMS/VHA NWD vision.

Objectives

• Strengthen relationships and increase awareness among current and future partners, consumers, stakeholders and the public.
• Increase public awareness of the multiple sources of LTSS information.
• Reduce unnecessary hospital readmissions.
• Improve LTSS responsiveness and efficiency.
• Ensure NWD system accountability and sustainability.
• Streamline enrollment processes and reduce timeframes

Outcomes

1. A three year plan to implement the ACL/CMS/VHA vision of a NWD system in Pennsylvania.
2. Increased public awareness of cross agency sources of LTSS assistance.
3. Functional requirements for integrated management systems.
4. Certification program for Options Counseling.

Products

The expected products are the three-year action plan for NWD implementation, development of regional community resource teams, documentation of functional requirements for an integrated LTSS information system, and an Options Counseling certification plan.

Approach

The three-year action plan will address how to meet the 12 goals needed to close the gap between current PA conditions and the ACL vision for a NWD system. Three workgroup teams will focus on specific groups of goals. Each team will follow a similar project path: analyze current metadata, develop surveys, convene focus groups of key stakeholders, develop draft plan, solicit input, provide final plan for executive approval. A more detailed plan is available for each group. Plan objectives assigned to each team are listed in the chart on the following pages.

The individual workgroup teams will focus on their objectives. Team leaders will communicate strategies, schedules, analysis and findings to other teams throughout the project. Some objectives have natural synergy with others. Close coordination on these within and among teams is essential.

One of the first tasks of the team leaders is to agree on how they would like to communicate with each other and with project leadership and support staff.

Communication with other concurrent project teams is also essential to success. The Balancing Incentives Program (BIP) and NWD teams will collaborate closely.

Timeframes and Project Phases

The grant timeframe is from October 1, 2014 to September 30, 2015. There is a lot of ground to cover in a twelve month period. Fortunately, there is already current data, information and documentation about all of the objectives. Other planning projects have gathered stakeholder information about barriers and gaps. This project will focus its attention on removing barriers and bridging gaps.

The first phase of the project focuses on identifying the people needed to develop the plan—and how the project team will communicate with them and with each other. Additional resources will be adding as the project unfolds.

To ensure that the team does not “reinvent the wheel”, the second major project phase is to review and analyze current reports and findings. This provides the basis for the team to identify what it does not know and to develop “straw man” draft approaches for stakeholders to consider in focus groups.

The third major project phase is talking with stakeholders. Depending on the objective, this could be groups of providers, caregivers, participants, state agencies, local agencies non-profit organizations, and others. The likely engagement is through e-surveys followed by focus group sessions with carefully crafted agendas designed to get the project team the action plan elements they need to develop a draft plan. This project is about developing an action plan to address the gaps of which we’re already aware. The sessions must be tailored and facilitated to get action-oriented planning results.

The fourth major phase is draft plan development. Taking all of the information, workgroup teams will create action plans to fulfill their assigned objectives. The draft plans will be available for stakeholder reaction.

The fifth major phase is final plan development and presentation to Department leadership for review and acceptance.

Project and workgroup team leaders will modify the project plan as needed to meet their goals. The likely tasks are listed below. Detailed planning steps are also available.