The Department of Health & Human Services has announced more plans to give providers regulation relief.
FierceHealthcare reports:
“Long-term-care facilities, in particular, are likely to see their pile of regulatory paperwork shrink. One future proposed rule, among the nearly 150 in HHS’s regulatory list, includes the removal of ‘unnecessary, obsolete, or excessively burdensome’ requirements that such providers need to comply with to participate in Medicare and Medicaid.”
“{The department} said the rule would ‘increase the ability of healthcare professionals to devote resources to improving resident care’ instead of paperwork. Hospitals and providers have been calling for paperwork reduction initiatives and appear to have found a friend in the Trump administration.
“HHS also plans to streamline the Medicare claims appeals process by fixing cross-references, unclear terms and definitions, and other errors that could be burdensome for providers and beneficiaries.”
The American Hospital Association seemed happy.
“We know that efficiencies can be found in many areas, such as streamlined quality reporting, administrative simplification, and less burdensome reporting on the use of electronic health records, among others,” Joanna Hiatt Kim, vice president of payment policy, told FierceHealthcare.
The new service went on: “Changes to Accountable Care Organizations are also expected. Some ACOs have been asking the agency for more time in non-financial risk-based contracts, instead of the six-year limit. However, the agency appears to be moving in the opposite direction, as one proposal on the Medicare Shared Savings Program includes ‘facilitating the transition to performance-based risk,’ signaling a greater push for risk-based arrangements.”’
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