Monday, October 28, 2013 2:55 pm

Area residents have a unique opportunity to have a voice in improving the quality of long term care for TennCare members who are seniors and adults with physical disabilities.

 Representatives from the Bureau of TennCare are hosting two community forums in an effort to engage citizens in the area. The meetings will take place Friday, Nov. 1, at the Nashville State Community College, 1000 Neal St., Cookeville, Tenn. 38501. TennCare consumers will meet from 10:30 a.m.-12 p.m. TennCare providers will meet from 1-3 p.m. The meeting is for citizens in Cannon, Clay, Cumberland, DeKalb, Fentress, Jackson, Macon, Overton, Pickett, Putnam, Smith, Van Buren, Warren and White counties.

 The Bureau of TennCare, Tennessee’s Medicaid program, is launching the QuILTSS initiative. QuILTSS stands for Quality Improvement in Long-Term Services and Supports (LTSS).  QuILTSS will promote the delivery of high quality LTSS for TennCare members.  LTSS include nursing facility services as well as home and community based services (HCBS) for seniors and adults who have a physical disability. 

 The forums will include an overview of the initiative followed by small group breakout sessions where participants can identify and rank the most important and useful ways to measure quality in long term care services, and how best to get needed information on quality into the hands of consumers, family members, community members and potential consumers. Representatives from Lipscomb University’s School of TransformAging® will be facilitating the forums.

 “As we continually strive to offer quality services, it is very important that the voices of the citizens of Tennessee are heard,” said Patti Killingsworth, assistant commissioner and chief of Long-Term Services and Supports for the Bureau of TennCare. “We want members of this community to join in the conversation to help us offer the best quality possible and in a way that meets their needs and expectations.”

 The forums are open to the public, but space is limited. Participants must preregister to attend by visiting www.lipscomb.edu/transformaging/QuILTSS, sending an e-mail to info.transformaging@lipscomb.edu, or by calling 1-800/333-4358 ext. 1105. 

 Consumers and providers who are unable to attend the community forum may share their thoughts by completing a confidential online survey about the QuILTSS initiative by going to https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/QuILTSS.  The survey will be open for public comment through Friday, Nov. 8.

 The QuILTSS initiative is receiving technical assistance through a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s State Quality and Value Strategies (SQVS) initiative. This product was prepared with support provided through a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s State Quality and Value Strategies program.”