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Evaluating Progress on our Goals

Measurement

C-TAC has developed the ACT Index as a tool to evaluate the quality of serious illness care using evidence-based measures. It allows healthcare leaders, policymakers, regulators, communities, and consumers to track progress towards improving care at the national and state-level and track its progress over time against leaders in different domains and determine the changes needed for care improvement.

Originally the Index was comprised of 37 measures in 5 domains. In 2022, under the advisement of the C-TAC Board, invited stakeholders and data experts, we reduced the measures to 26 in 4 domains.  The measures included in the Index address four key domains that must be addressed for those with serious illness; these include Care, Costs, Community & Caregivers, and Communications.

Two measure types are incorporated into the Index: 1. patient and family surveys of the patient care experience, and 2. transactional care processes such as cost, hospital readmissions, and home health visits.

Get Involved to Raise the Bar

We can’t pull this off without our funders, partners, members, and industry innovators – we need you to participate. If you have ideas on how to improve these measures, or ways we can help you implement them, reach out and let us know!

Measurement

ACT Index 2.0 Introduced at the 2022 C-TAC Summit

The revised ACT Index report will be released at the 2022 C-TAC Summit. The report will include 2020 and 2021 updated data and reorganized into four domains each with a score for tracking improvements: Costs, Care, Community & Caregivers, and Communication. The report will include:

  • state-by-state report cards ranking performance by each domain
  • snapshots of the serious illness population per state: cost, utilization, and gaps in care
  • snapshots of serious illness providers per state: count and quality of individuals and care teams

Future Measure Advocacy

C-TAC advocates for the adoption of the following measures:

  • Patient’s and caregiver’s experience of feeling Heard and Understood
  • Patient’s experience of pain
  • Assessment for and referrals to additional services
  • Patient and family out of pocket costs

How to Use the ACT Index

State agencies and state-based coalitions can use the ACT Index to:

  • Advocate for standardized services to be available and paid for through health insurance
  • Identify and assess the current need for services for a state’s serious illness population
  • Advocate for workforce training and certification standards
  • Advocate for funding and other resources based on infrastructure needs for community-based organizations and health systems.

Key ACT Index Resources

C-TAC has developed a new handbook designed to guide individuals and groups across the United States through the process of developing and strengthening partnerships on the state and local level.
C-TAC is participating in a partnership to leverage the Advanced Care Transformation (ACT) Index to improve the quality of life for people with serious illness in Arizona.
C-TAC partnered with Discern Health to support its continued efforts to build the Advanced Care Transformation Index (ACT Index), which C-TAC developed to assess the state of advanced illness and end-of-life care in the United States.

Recent Measurement Resources

At the 2022 Summit in DC, C-TAC announced the ACT Index 2.0, an updated look at scores for tracking improvements, and a Payer Toolkit focused on Designing and Implementing Community-Based Palliative Care.

Coalitions, policymakers, and other community leaders are advancing initiatives at the state and local levels to improve the care experience for people with serious illness.

The new patient-reported quality measure “Felt Heard and Understood”