The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services today issued a Health Plan Management System memo to all Medicare Advantage Organizations and Medicare-Medicaid Plans to strongly encourage them to waive or relax plan prior authorization requirements and utilization management processes to facilitate the movement of patients from general acute-care hospitals to post-acute care and other clinically-appropriate settings, including skilled nursing facilities, long-term care hospitals, inpatient rehabilitation facilities, and home health agencies.

CMS in the memo highlights the recent surge of the COVID-19 delta variant and increased hospitalizations across the country and notes that “the ability of hospitals to transfer patients to appropriate levels of care without unnecessary delays or administrative burdens is critical to ensuring that hospitals have open acute-care beds to treat patients requiring emergent care.” The AHA continues to work with both CMS and MAOs to encourage adoption of these waivers.

Related News Articles

Headline
The AHA Sept. 15 expressed support for the Ensuring Access to Essential Providers Act, legislation that would require Medicare Advantage plans to cover…
Headline
The AHA Sept. 15 urged Aetna to rescind its recently announced “level of severity inpatient payment” policy, saying that it “could erode the transparency…
Headline
The AHA detailed its key health care priorities for the remainder of the year in comments to House and Senate majority and minority leaders Sept. 15. The AHA…
Perspective
Public
Every health care provider strives to deliver their patients the best possible care, but not all providers offer the same level or complexity of care. Current…
Headline
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Sept. 9 issued preliminary guidance regarding the implementation of certain state-directed payment provisions…
Headline
A JAMA internal medicine study published Sept. 8 found that since the COVID-19 pandemic, Medicare Advantage beneficiaries have been experiencing longer…