AHA today raised “substantial concerns” with the prototype payment model that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Department of Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, and RTI International are developing for the new unified post-acute care prospective payment system required by the Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation Act of 2014.

“In particular, we are not confident that the eventual prototype will be capable of yielding accurate payments for the full array of patients treated across the four PAC settings,” AHA wrote, imploring CMS, ASPE and RTI to address its questions, issues and concerns at the next meeting of the RTI Technical Expert Panel. 

The letter enumerates multiple gaps in the methodology used thus far to build the new PAC payment prototype. 

“If some portion of these design challenges is found to be insurmountable, or cannot be adequately mitigated, our current ask of Congress to reconsider and refine the IMPACT Act timeline related to PAC PPS development would become even more urgent,” AHA said.
 

Related News Articles

Headline
The AHA July 8 wrote in opposition to the “Patient Access to Higher Quality Health Care Act” (H.R. 4002), which would repeal current law banning the creation…
Headline
The AHA July 2 expressed support for the Resident Physician Shortage Reduction Act (H.R. 3890), bipartisan legislation that would add 14,000 Medicare-funded…
Headline
The House July 3 voted 218-214 to pass the final version of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R. 1), which enacts many of President Trump’s legislative…
Headline
The Senate narrowly passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R. 1) on July 1 by a 50-50 tally, with Vice President J.D. Vance casting the tie-breaking vote.…
Headline
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services June 30 issued its calendar year 2026 proposed rule for the home health prospective payment system. This rule…
Headline
The AHA June 29 sent a letter to senators urging them to amend the budget reconciliation bill before its final passage in the Senate. The Senate version of the…