Policy: American Hospital Association Up In Arms

Earlier this week the American Hospital Association protested CMS' recent request to tie outpatient reimbursement rates to quality reporting on inpatient procedures. Their rational appeared to be...and I quote:

"We are troubled by CMS’ proposal for many reasons: First, it simply makes no sense to link
outpatient payments to inpatient measures of quality. Second, linking a reduction in the
conversion factor to the submission of inpatient PPS data that have already been reported and
made public does nothing to further CMS’ stated goals of encouraging hospital accountability
and quality improvement. Third, linking payment to data submission that predates the outpatient PPS rule is unfair and tantamount to retroactive rulemaking. Fourth, in linking outpatient payments to the reporting of quality data, CMS has exceeded its statutory authority."

For the actual letter to CMS...click here. Its 27 pages...just in case you thought you could make a quick read between meetings.

And while I probably don't follow the AHA like I should (nor give them enough credit for the work they do)...it would be great to see how AHA and CMS could work more closely together, in a unified manner, that might more forcefully engage the industry in quality innovations.

One of these days a group of providers will decide to compete based on quality and adequately "sell" quality to their physicians, payors and patients...then, perhaps, we'll start to see some movement to transparency and true, sustainable, improvements in quality.