Provide feedback on changes to the promoting interoperability programs

On April 24th, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued the FY 2019 Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) and Long Term Acute Care Hospital (LTCH) proposed rule.

Comments on the FY 2019 IPPS and LTCH proposed rule are due no later than 5 p.m. ET Monday, June 25, 2018. The public can submit comments in several ways:

• By regular mail
• By express or overnight mail
• By hand or courier
• Electronically: Through the “submit a comment” instructions on the Federal Register

Please review the proposed rule for specific instructions for each method and submit comments by one method ONLY.

The IPPS and LTCH Proposed Rule with comment period includes a number of proposed changes that would shift the Promoting Interoperability (PI) Programs’ focus to interoperability and reducing clinician burden by:

• Eliminating a total of 19 measures acute care hospitals are currently required to report across the five hospital quality and value-based purchasing programs.
• Changing the electronic clinical quality measure (CQM) reporting period to one, self-selected quarter for CY 2019.
• Beginning with the 2020 reporting period, removing 8 of the 16 CQMs to produce a smaller set of meaningful measures.
• Making the PI reporting period in CY 2019 and CY 2020 a minimum of any continuous 90-day period.

To learn more, review the proposed rule and visit the CMS website.