News: AHA submits suggestions on limiting CMS regulatory burden
CMS could immediately reduce the regulatory burden on hospitals, health systems, and the patients they serve, according to AHA News.
Submitted in response to the agency’s request for information on flexibilities and efficiencies, the AHA submitted dozens of suggestions in a letter to CMS, including:
- Suspend the faulty star ratings on the Hospital Compare website
- Cancel Stage 3 of the meaningful use program
- Suspend Electronic Clinical Quality Measure reporting requirements
- Use only measures that truly matter to simplify the ratings
- Eliminate regulatory barriers that prevent exploration of innovative strategies and Alternative Payment Models
- Examine the inpatient rehab facility “60% Rule”
- Protect Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital payments
- Hold Medicare Recovery Audit Contractors accountable
- Adjust readmission measures to reflect differences in social risk factors
- Make future bundled payment programs voluntary
The AHA is assembling a report for release later this fall, holistically cataloging the regulatory burden imposed on hospitals and health systems, their letter to CMS says.
“As one small example of the volume of recent regulatory activity: in 2016, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and other agencies of the Department of Health and Human Services released 49 hospital and health system-related rules, comprising almost 24,000 pages of text,” wrote AHA Executive Vice President Tom Nickels. "Moreover, this does not include the increasing use of sub-regulatory guidance (FAQs, blogs, etc.) to implement new administrative policies. In addition to the sheer volume, the scope of changes required by the new regulations is beginning to outstrip the field's ability to absorb them.”
Editor’s note: To read the AHA’s entire letter to CMS, click here. To read an article from the CDI Journal about the inpatient rehab “60% rule,” click here. To read an article from the CDI Journal about publically reported quality data, click here.