Letter/Comment

The latest advocacy letters and comments from the American Hospital Association.

We are truly dismayed to see that despite the numerous legal defects that we identified in these audits, the OIG has proceeded to issue at least four new audit reports using extrapolation in the last month that include many of the same flaws.
We greatly appreciate that the Senate Rural Health Caucus and its members continually recognize the unique circumstances and challenges that small and rural hospitals face.
We are writing to request that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) withdraw the proposed draft guidance, “Framework for Regulatory Oversight of Laboratory Developed Tests” and associated guidance. The draft guidance documents conflict with existing regulations and would impose substantial new…
I want to bring to your attention efforts by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to unjustifiably limit how hospitals can demonstrate they qualify for tax-exempt status, and recommend that Congress take action to reverse this decision and enact legislation that would hold the IRS accountable by…
The AHA is supportive of testing innovations in care delivery for Medicare’s chronically ill population as well as testing innovations in Medicare Advantage that leverage these capabilities to bring better health and better care coordination to Medicare Advantage enrollees.
The CMS FY2015 Budget Justification included language simply stating that CMS must coordinate with the HRSA Office of Rural Health Policy and receive recommendation from the White House Rural Council. Despite this assertion, several policies remain problematic for rural providers and facilities,…
As the organizations representing more than 5,000 hospitals and health systems across the country, we respectfully urge you to delay the effective date of October 9, 2014 for provisions in the final rule on Disposal of Controlled Substances that would adversely affect hospitals.
Beginning August 1, 2014, the Beneficiary and Family Centered Care Quality Improvement Organization (BFCC-QIO) Program was restructured from a state-based program, with an individual QIO contractor in each of the 53 states and territories, to five BFCC regional contracts covering the same 53 states…
The American Hospital Association (AHA) is writing to request clarification regarding how the appeals settlement offer, announced by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on Aug. 29, 2014, impacts the contingency fees Recovery Audit Contractors (RACs) received for previously denied…
The American Hospital Association (AHA) is pleased to support H.R. 5481, the Flexibility in Health IT Reporting (Flex-IT) Act of 2014. Your legislation requires the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to make a necessary adjustment to how it implements the Medicare and Medicaid…