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The Flex Program Forum is for content related to the Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility (Flex) Program and rural health care.

View a list of resources related to electronic clinical quality measure (eCQM) reporting that is intended to aid CAHs seeking to meet the reporting requirements for the Promoting Interoperability Program, formerly the Medicare EHR Incentive Program. This list will be regularly updated to reflect new resources as they become available.

In this module, we’re going to take a broad look at your health care organization and help you think about how you and your team contribute to its long-term success. We’ll also explore the ways you impact culture and relationships through your daily interactions with others. 

In this module, we’re going to explore ways that you can work to influence the behavior of those on your team. We’ll share best practices for communicating expectations, giving and receiving feedback, and recognizing others.

In this module, we’re going to dig into some things that are hard for many of us: Communication, conflict, and difficult conversations. We’ll look at what it means to be a collaborative communicator and share tips for becoming a better listener, keeping conflict constructive, and having difficult conversations.

In this module, we’re going to dive into the topic of change. We’ll talk about common experiences that people have through the course of change. We’ll talk about specific things you can do as a leader of change to smooth the process and help others through the transition – and help yourself as well.

In this module, we’ll explore what it means to engage your team and share some strategies for strengthening engagement by developing your team’s knowledge and skills, making collaborative decisions, and building a strong team identity.

View a list of key resources curated by the Technical Assistance and Services Center (TASC) for use by state Flex Programs to support incorporation of performance management into program operations, feeding into program improvement and evaluation

Use this series of leadership tools to enable rural health care leadership teams to examine and clarify roles for achieving performance excellence during the transition to value-based health care. They are geared specifically toward administrative teams, board members and physician leaders.

An Excel-based data collection tool designed to collect participation and improvement data over one grant year to enable accurate reporting of PIMS measures at the end of the grant budget year.

Listen to episode four of a six-part podcast from the National Rural Health Resource Center about Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and its prevalence in rural America. This episode features Michelle Collins, a registered respiratory therapist at Lincoln Health, Franklin Memorial Hospital, and Central Maine Medical Center in Maine.

Listen to episode five of a six-part podcast from the National Rural Health Resource Center about Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and its prevalence in rural America. This episode features Lindsay Corcoran and Laurie Daigle of Stroudwater Associates .

This Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility (Flex) Performance Management and Evaluation Guide aims to support Flex Program Coordinators towards incorporating performance management into program operations, leading towards program improvement and evaluation.

The guide for state Flex Programs contains relevant and practical recommendations and tools to strengthen staff engagement and retention through the Staff Sustainability Cycle described within, which consists of recruiting, onboarding, learning and development, engagement and retention, and succession planning.

The Pulmonary Rehabilitation Campaign — with messages tied to the themes of “From Winded to Wonderful,” “Breathing is Easy. Until it’s Not.” and “Breathe Relief Into Your Life” — is designed to educate health care consumers and providers about services that can be easily accessed locally.

View the criteria to be eligible to participate in Flex-related activities for Fiscal Year 2020. Learn exceptions and answers to frequently asked questions and access the 2019 MBQIP sample waiver template.

A MOU is required in order for any CAH to participate in MBQIP. Access current and past MBQIP MOU and consent forms as well as descriptions of when to use them.

Resources to support abstracting, submitting, and confirming data submission to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) QualityNet Warehouse, including the CMS Abstraction and Reporting Tool (CART) and reporting specifications manuals. 

Flex Program Fundamentals: An Introduction to the Medicare Rural Hospital Flexibility Program is designed to be used by both new and current Flex Program staff: as an orientation manual and as a guide to helpful resources.