Hospital Acquired Condition Present on Admission (HAC-POA) Program Evaluation

This project evaluates the impact of the Hospital Acquired Condition Present on Admission (HAC-POA) program on the changes in the incidence of selected conditions, effects on Medicare payments, impacts on coding accuracy, unintended consequences, and infection and event rates. The evaluation will also examine the implementation of the HAC-POA program and evaluate additional conditions for future selection. The contractor will be required to design and conduct this program evaluation. The program evaluation will consist of an impact analysis of secondary data using quantitative and qualitative methods to examine the wide-ranging effects of the HAC-POA program and to suggest future enhancements to the program. This is an intra-agency project with funding and technical support coming from CMS, the Office of Public Health and Science (OPHS), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).