House Panel Holds Hospital Forum on Regulatory Relief

Reforming the Medicare conditions of participation and modernizing the Stark Law are key to regulatory relief and the transition to value, Advocate Aurora Health Chief Medical Officer Lee Sacks, M.D., told the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee yesterday. Testifying at a closed-door forum on hospital regulatory relief, Sacks recommended “a complete overhaul and audit of the CoP requirements to ensure that all regulations and code are current and up to date with modern practices and standards.” He said the integrated health system also supports “full-scale modernization” of the Stark Law to eliminate the regulatory barriers it can impose on providers and integrated delivery systems, as well as other changes to advance the country’s transition to value-based care models. The subcommittee last year launched an initiative to reduce legislative and regulatory burdens on Medicare providers. Hospitals, health systems and post-acute care providers spend nearly $39 billion a year on administrative activities related to regulatory compliance, according to a study released last October by the AHA. In a letter to the subcommittee last year, AHA laid out actions that Congress could take immediately to reduce the regulatory burden on hospitals, health systems and the patients they serve.