For clinical teams in MLTSS, assessments are more than a compliance requirement; they are the foundation for care planning, service authorization, and member outcomes. When a state introduces a new assessment or updates assessment requirements for MCOs, plans are often expected to move quickly. Without proper training or the right technology partners, assessment accuracy can suffer.
States across the country are actively changing assessment frameworks. Pennsylvania will transition from the interRAI Home Care (HC) v9 to interRAI HC v10 in July 2026, Illinois updated its Health Risk Assessment (HRA) requirements in January 2026, and Kansas implemented the interRAI statewide in the summer of 2025. Each change can introduce new questions, definitions, and logic that directly affect how a member’s acuity is assessed and captured.New Assessments Bring New Clinical Intent
Even when assessments seem familiar, updated versions often include revised item definitions, new questions, and adjusted response options that change the clinical meaning behind how an assessor records a response. With the release of interRAI HC Version 10, interRAI noted that many new items have been added, while other items have been changed or deleted, signaling that the update was not simply a structural refresh but also a change in its content.
These subtle changes, such as revised coding options or new items, can alter how functional need, cognition, or behavioral health is captured. Without retraining, clinical teams may default to logic learned from previous versions, answering questions in ways that were previously correct but are no longer aligned with the updated assessment. Over time, this creates even more variability across assessors and increases the risk of inaccurate acuity.
Effective retraining addresses more than what changed. It reinforces why those changes matter clinically and why they changed, and how to apply new definitions while assessing a member’s needs. During Kansas’ shift to the interRAI, clinicians unfamiliar with interRAI’s standardized framework required extensive, structured education that focused on the intent and evaluation criteria for each question to ensure consistency and accuracy from the start.
Technology Partner as Extension of Team
Training alone is rarely enough to maintain consistency and accurate assessments. Health plans that consistently capture accurate acuity often use a technology partner as an extension of their team and as another set of eyes. Intelligent solutions can flag inconsistencies in real-time, offer a clinical reviewer queue, and ensure accurate assessments. By integrating technology in addition to ongoing training, plans can better equip their clinical teams for success by aligning member assessments with service plans, minimizing unwarranted variability, and ensuring care decisions are driven by the member’s assessed needs.