Department of Health and Human Services August 16, 2019 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is announcing an opportunity for the public to comment on CMS' intention to collect information from the public. Under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (the PRA), federal agencies are required to publish notice in the Federal Register concerning each proposed collection of information (including each proposed extension or reinstatement of an existing collection of information) and to allow 60 days for public comment on the proposed action. Interested persons are invited to send comments regarding our burden estimates or any other aspect of this collection of information, including the necessity and utility of the proposed information collection for the proper performance of the agency's functions, the accuracy of the estimated burden, ways to enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to be collected, and the use of automated collection techniques or other forms of information technology to minimize the information collection burden.

This notice announces the intention of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to request that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approve the proposed information collection project ``Systematic Review Data Repository.'' This proposed information collection was previously published in the Federal Register on June 14, 2019 and allowed 60 days for public comment. There were no substantive comments received by AHRQ. The purpose of this notice is to allow an additional 30 days for public comment.

We are revising the Medicare hospital inpatient prospective payment systems (IPPS) for operating and capital-related costs of acute care hospitals to implement changes arising from our continuing experience with these systems for FY 2020 and to implement certain recent legislation. We also are making changes relating to Medicare graduate medical education (GME) for teaching hospitals and payments to critical access hospital (CAHs). In addition, we are providing the market basket update that will apply to the rate-of-increase limits for certain hospitals excluded from the IPPS that are paid on a reasonable cost basis, subject to these limits for FY 2020. We are updating the payment policies and the annual payment rates for the Medicare prospective payment system (PPS) for inpatient hospital services provided by long-term care hospitals (LTCHs) for FY 2020. In this FY 2020 IPPS/LTCH PPS final rule, we are addressing wage index disparities impacting low wage index hospitals; providing for an alternative IPPS new technology add-on payment pathway for certain transformative new devices and qualified infectious disease products; and revising the calculation of the IPPS new technology add-on payment. In addition, we are revising and clarifying our policies related to the substantial clinical improvement criterion used for evaluating applications for the new technology add-on payment under the IPPS. We are establishing new requirements or revising existing requirements for quality reporting by specific Medicare providers (acute care hospitals, PPS-exempt cancer hospitals, and LTCHs). We also are establishing new requirements and revising existing requirements for eligible hospitals and critical access hospitals (CAHs) participating in the Medicare and Medicaid Promoting Interoperability Programs. We are updating policies for the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) Program, the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program, and the Hospital-Acquired Condition (HAC) Reduction Program.