Community-Based Care Transitions Program (CCTP)
What is the Community-Based Care Transitions Program (CCTP)?
The Community-Based Care Transitions Program (CCTP), which was created under the Affordable Care Act, tested models for improving care transitions from the hospital to other care settings. These models also sought to reduce readmissions for high-risk Medicare beneficiaries.
The CCTP launched in 2012 and ran for five years.
Community-based organizations (CBOs) utilize care transition services to manage transitions in Medicare patients and improve their quality of care. Through CCTP they were paid once per eligible discharge based on the cost of care transition services and the cost of implementing systemic changes. Additionally, CBOs were only paid once in a 180-day period for each beneficiary, encouraging them to minimize readmissions which were unapplicable for compensation.
How did the Community-Based Care Transitions Program (CCTP) impact healthcare?
The CCTP worked to find models that improved transitions from inpatient hospital settings to other care locations in order to improve quality of care and reduce admissions.
The CCTP found that many sites employed common strategies to form better CBO-hospital partner relationships, which included maintaining a consistent and integrated computed tomography (CT) presence in the hospital, identifying beneficiary needs, linking participants with community-based services, and coordinating post-acute care (PAC).
The program findings also found that those who participated in the CCTP had lower readmission rates and Medicare Part A and Part B expenditures over the time when the sites were actively involved in the program.