AHA comments on 21st Century Cures discussion draft
The AHA supports the intent of draft legislation to accelerate and improve the discovery, development and delivery of new cures and treatments for patients, but would strongly object to any reductions to hospital payments to pay for the proposals, AHA Executive Vice President Rick Pollack said in comments submitted today. The association also urged the House Energy and Commerce Committee to ensure an appropriate level of protection for the security, integrity and accessibility of personal health information, and expressed concern that a proposal to publish Medicare pricing information for services furnished in hospital outpatient departments and ambulatory surgery centers “could provide a limited and misleading picture of the total price of a given item or service.” Any additions to the draft with respect to interoperability should focus on ensuring that vendors are accountable for designing and supporting interoperable products, not impose additional, unnecessary requirements on health care providers, AHA said. It also urged the committee to eliminate “originating site” requirements for Medicare coverage of telemedicine and expand the types of covered telemedicine services.