Medicare Program: Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment and Ambulatory Surgical Center Payment Systems and Quality Reporting Programs; Organ Procurement Organization Reporting and Communication; Transplant Outcome Measures and Documentation Requirements; Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Programs; Payment to Certain Off-Campus Outpatient Departments of a Provider; Hospital Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) Program
Published in the Federal Register on July 14, 2016, this proposed rule would revise the Medicare hospital outpatient prospective payment system (OPPS) and the Medicare ambulatory surgical center (ASC) payment system for CY 2017 to implement applicable statutory requirements and changes arising from continuing experience with these systems. In this proposed rule these are some of its content which include the CMS Meaningful Use Incentive Program:
- proposed changes to the amounts and factors used to determine the payment rates for Medicare services paid under the OPPS and those paid under the ASC payment system.
- proposed rule would update and refine the requirements for the Hospital Outpatient Quality Reporting (OQR) Program and the ASC Quality Reporting (ASCQR) Program.
- make changes to the Medicare and Medicaid Electronic Health Record Incentive Programs.
- remove the HCAHPS Pain Management dimension from the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) Program.
Comment period ends on September 6, 2016. Comments can be submitted through the Regulations.gov website.
Basic proposed changes:
- Eliminate the Clinical Decision Support (CDS) and Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) objectives and measures for eligible hospitals and CAHs for Modified Stage 2 and Stage 3 for 2017 and subsequent years.
- Reduce the thresholds of a subset of the remaining objectives and measures in Modified Stage 2 for 2017 and in Stage 3 for 2017 and 2018.
- Change reporting period in 2016 to any continuous 90-day period within the calendar year (CY) of January 1 and December 31, 2016.
- 2017 Modified Stage 2 objectives and measures for first time attesters.
- One-time significant hardship exception from the 2018 payment adjustment for certain EPs who are new participants in the EHR Incentive Program in 2017 and are transitioning to MIPS in 2017.
- Change the policy on measure calculations for actions outside the EHR reporting period for the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs
More media and analysis:
- From Encore (@Encore_Health), The CY 2017 OPPS Proposed Rule brings an awaited response to the October 2015 EHR Incentive Programs Final Rule with comment period.
- From Becker’s Hospital CFO (@BeckersHR) – CMS releases OPPS proposed rule for 2017: 12 things to know by Ayla Ellison
- From Becker’s Health IT & CIO Review (@BeckersHR) – CMS ‘takes the teeth’ out of MU in proposed rules by Akanksha Jayanthi
- From Phoenix Health Systems – CMS’ Proposed Meaningful Use Changes Would Substantially Reduce Stage 2 and 3 Burdens on Providers By Thomas Grove