The CMS has responded to calls to eliminate patient satisfaction on pain management from Medicare’s value-based purchasing program. The agency angered hospitals, however, with plans to stop paying their off-campus facilities the same as hospital-based outpatient departments.
Both policies are included in the proposed rule for the 2017 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System issued Wednesday.
The CMS’ actuary has estimated that so-called site-neutral payments for ambulatory care, which Congress called for a 2015 spending bill, would save Medicare about $500 million in 2017. The American Hospital Association quickly issued a harshly worded statement criticizing the CMS for declining to include support for hospital outpatient departments.
The AHA was among several prominent healthcare associations that had called on the Obama administration to stop incorporating patients’ responses to pain-management questions in the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) in the value-based purchasing program. HCAHPS results are a significant factor in how hospitals fare under value-based purchasing, and providers have complained the program gives them a financial incentive to over-prescribe painkillers to keep patients happy.
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