A coalition of hospital and physician organizations, including the AHA, yesterday urged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to give Medicare accountable care organizations the option to use pre-pandemic spending benchmarks to set financial targets beginning in performance year 2022.

“By allowing an option to use earlier years to set MSSP benchmarks for certain ACOs, CMS will avoid the anomalies in utilization resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. This provides a more credible baseline for certain ACOs disproportionately harmed by the pandemic,” the letter states. “Those such ACOs are currently evaluating whether to enter new five-year agreement periods. Having a longer agreement period means the effects of pandemic-stricken years will follow ACOs for a significant amount of time. This is particularly problematic as ACOs move to take on greater levels of risk.”

 

Related News Articles

Headline
The federal government shut down Oct. 1 following a failed Senate vote on the House-passed continuing resolution to fund the government by midnight Sept. 30.…
Headline
The AHA Sept. 29 asked the Trump administration to provide exemptions for health care personnel from the proclamation issued Sept. 19 announcing changes to the…
Headline
The Office of Science and Technology Policy issued a request for information Sept. 26 seeking feedback on federal regulations that hinder AI development,…
Headline
The AHA Sept. 24 expressed support for the Medical Student Education Authorization Act (H.R. 5428), legislation introduced in the House Sept. 17 that would…
Headline
The AHA expressed support Sept. 22 to House and Senate sponsors of the Medicare Advantage Prompt Pay Act (H.R. 5454/S. 2879), legislation that would apply a…
Headline
The Senate Sept. 19 failed to adopt a continuing resolution by a 44-48 vote  that would have funded the government through Nov. 21. The CR was passed by…