Inpatient Rehabilitation Perspective Represented by AMRPA on Recent Technical Expert Panel focused on Post-Acute Care Payment and Quality 
AMRPA Commends Member Leadership of Dr. Pamela Roberts, MSHA, OTR/L, SCFES, FAOTA, CPHQ, FNAP, FACRM 

 

Pam Roberts, PhD, MSHA, OTR/L, SCFES, FAOTA, CPHQ, FNAP, FACRM 
Director of Academic and Physician Informatics 
Professor and Director of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 
Cedars-Sinai Health System 

(WASHINGTON – August 19, 2021) In recent weeks, one of AMRPA’s member policy experts, Pamela Roberts, PhD, Director of Academic and Physician Informatics and Professor/Director of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Cedars-Sinai Health System, skillfully represented the Association on a Technical Expert Panels (TEP) involving important post-acute care (PAC)  quality reporting and measurement issues.  Her input and analysis will help ensure that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and other policymakers understand and incorporate our sector’s perspective as they contemplate future changes within the IRF quality reporting program (QRP) and other PAC QRPs.  AMRPA leadership and staff commend Roberts for her leadership on these key issues and look forward to seeing the impact of her contributions moving forward. 

Dr. Roberts was nominated by AMRPA earlier this summer to serve on a TEP focused on the refinement of function measures in the four PAC settings – inpatient rehabilitation hospitals and units (IRFs), long-term care hospitals (LTCHs), skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), and home health (HH).  During the July 2021 panel and through post-panel correspondence with CMS and its contractor, Dr. Roberts provided her clinically based and policy-centered perspective on how various GG items in the IRF patient assessment instrument (PAI) effectively capture patients’ functional abilities and improvement in the IRF setting.  She also detailed how the unique competencies of the IRF setting (and corresponding patient population) make it difficult to use the same functional measure across different PAC settings.  Dr. Roberts also offered her perspective on the use of “Activity Not Attempted Codes,” as well as how the COVID-19 public health emergency has broadly impacted IRF quality reporting.  CMS asserted that it will incorporate panelists’ perspectives as it addresses gaps in the way that function is currently measured in the PAC Quality Reporting Programs (QRPs) and refine measures within the various settings.   

AMRPA’s advocacy efforts have always been bolstered by their members’ engagement, and the Association would like to express appreciation for Dr. Pam Roberts leadership in the context of this critically important policy initiative.  

For more information on AMRPA’s 2021 policy priorities, click here. 

For media inquiries, please contact: 

Julia Scott 
Marketing Communications Coordinator 
American Medical Rehabilitation Providers Association 
(202) 207-1110 | [email protected]