fah hospital policy blog

In a letter sent today to CMS Administrator Seem Verma, the FAH outlines several concerns with policies contained in the Medicaid Access Proposed Rule. Under current Medicaid law, states are required to assure that Medicaid payments are “consistent with efficiency, economy, and quality of care are sufficient to enlist enough providers so that care and services are available…..” In November 2015, CMS finalized regulations requiring states to use a process to document compliance with the legal standard for demonstrating sufficient payment. The Proposed Rule issued by CMS and which the FAH commented on today, would inappropriately loosen those requirements. Areas highlighted in the letter include:

FAH joined a coalition of other care providers in asking leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee to include in their legislative effort to combat the opioid epidemic a bill entitled “The Limited Repeal of the IMD Exclusion for Adult Medicaid Beneficiaries with Substance Use Disorder Act.”

Providing health care for rural Americans comes with unique challenges. It frequently will require unique solutions. FAH and our members have long advocated for assuring the more than 60 million people who live in rural areas have access to timely, quality care. Advancing the use of telehealth, tailoring Medicare and Medicaid programs to better serve small communities and the other objectives laid out by CMS today will ultimately help patients and those hospitals that serve them.

Today, the Federation of American Hospitals responded to a Department of Health and Human Services Request for Information (RFI) on how to promote choice and competition in the health care marketplace. The RFI was issued in response to the President’s Executive Order issued in October 2017, requiring the Secretary of HHS to provide a report to the President detailing the extent to which current law, regulations and policies fail to promote choice and competition.