AHA Urges CMS, HHS to Convene Expert Panels for PAC PPS

The AHA yesterday asked the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation to convene technical expert panels to inform and receive input from stakeholders as they develop a unified post-acute care prospective payment system. “In November 2016, the AHA made recommendations to CMS and ASPE for your consideration as you proceed with your work,” AHA Executive Vice President Tom Nickels wrote. “One of these recommendations was for your agencies to ensure a transparent PAC PPS development process. In pursuit of this, the AHA requests that technical expert panels be convened to allow stakeholders to weigh in and be briefed on the new model. Through its development, we ask that you convene at least three TEPs, which would be consistent with the process CMS used to develop the alternative [skilled nursing facility] PPS payment model known as ‘RCS-1.’ To ensure that the field is informed and has the opportunity to weigh in throughout the lengthy process, we specifically request that the first such TEP be convened in 2018.”