Medicare Program; Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment Systems for Acute Care Hospitals and the Long-Term Care Hospital Prospective Payment System…

Medicare Program; Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment Systems for Acute Care Hospitals and the Long-Term Care Hospital Prospective Payment System Policy Changes and Fiscal Year 2016 Rates; Revisions of Quality Reporting Requirements for Specific Providers, Including Changes Related to the Electronic Health Record Incentive Program

SUMMARY: We are proposing to revise 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 2016. Some of these changes implement certain statutory provisions contained in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 (collectively known as the Affordable Care Act), the Pathway for Sustainable Growth Reform (SGR) Act of 2013, the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014, and other legislation. We also are addressing the update of 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 2016.

EFFECTIVE DATE: Comment Period: To be assured consideration, comments on all sections of this proposed rule must be received at one of the addresses provided in the ADDRESSES section no later than 5 p.m. EST on June 29, 2015.

ADDRESSES: In commenting, please refer to file code CMS-1632-P. Because of staff and resource limitations, we cannot accept comments by facsimile (FAX) transmission.

You may submit comments in one of four ways (no duplicates, please):

1. Electronically. You may (and we encourage you to) submit electronic comments on this regulation to http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the instructions under the "submit a comment" tab.

2. By regular mail. You may mail written comments to the following address ONLY: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Department of Health and Human Services, Attention: CMS-1632-P, P.O. Box 8013, Baltimore, MD 21244-1850.

Please allow sufficient time for mailed comments to be received before the close of the comment period.

3. By express or overnight mail. You may send written comments via express or overnight mail to the following address ONLY: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Department of Health and Human Services, Attention: CMS-1632-P, Mail Stop C4-26-05, 7500 Security Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21244-1850.

4. By hand or courier. If you prefer, you may deliver (by hand or courier) your written comments before the close of the comment period to either of the following addresses:

a. For delivery in Washington, DC--Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Department of Health and Human Services, Room 445-G, Hubert H. Humphrey Building, 200 Independence Avenue SW., Washington, DC 20201.

(Because access to the interior of the Hubert H. Humphrey Building is not readily available to persons without Federal Government identification, commenters are encouraged to leave their comments in the CMS drop slots located in the main lobby of the building. A stamp-in clock is available for persons wishing to retain a proof of filing by stamping in and retaining an extra copy of the comments being filed.)

b. For delivery in Baltimore, MD--Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Department of Health and Human Services, 7500 Security Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21244-1850.

If you intend to deliver your comments to the Baltimore address, please call the telephone number (410) 786-7195 in advance to schedule your arrival with one of our staff members.

Comments mailed to the addresses indicated as appropriate for hand or courier delivery may be delayed and received after the comment period.

For information on viewing public comments, we refer readers to the beginning of the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Ing-Jye Cheng, (410) 786-4548 and Donald Thompson, (410) 786-4487, Operating Prospective Payment, MS-DRGs, Deficit Reduction Act Hospital-Acquired Acquired Conditions--Present on Admission (DRA HAC-POA) Program, Hospital-Acquired Conditions Reduction Program, Hospital Readmission Reductions Program, Wage Index, New Medical Service and Technology Add-On Payments, Hospital Geographic Reclassifications, Graduate Medical Education, Capital Prospective Payment, Excluded Hospitals, and Medicare Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) Issues.

Michele Hudson, (410) 786-4487, Long-Term Care Hospital Prospective Payment System and MS-LTC-DRG Relative Weights Issues.

Siddhartha Mazumdar, (410) 786-6673, Rural Community Hospital Demonstration Program Issues.

Cindy Tourison, (410) 786-1093, Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting and Hospital Value-Based Purchasing--Program Administration, Validation, and Reconsideration Issues.

Pierre Yong, (410) 786-8896, Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting--Measures Issues Except Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Issues.

Elizabeth Goldstein, (410) 786-6665, Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting--Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Measures Issues.

Mary Pratt, (410) 786-6867, LTCH Quality Data Reporting Issues.

Kim Spalding Bush, (410) 786-3232, Hospital Value-Based Purchasing Efficiency Measures Issues.

James Poyer, (410) 786-2261, PPS-Exempt Cancer Hospital Quality Reporting Issues.

Deborah Krauss, (410) 786-5264, and Alexandra Mugge, (410-786-4457), EHR Incentive Program Clinical Quality Measure Related Issues.

Elizabeth Myers, (410) 786-4751, EHR Incentive Program Nonclinical Quality Measure Related Issues.

Lauren Wu, (202) 690-7151, Certified EHR Technology Related Issues.

Kellie Shannon, (410) 786-0416, Simplified Cost Allocation Methodology Issues.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Inspection of Public Comments: All public comments received before the close of the comment period are available for viewing by the public, including any personally identifiable or confidential business information that is included in a comment. We post all public comments received before the close of the comment period on the following Web site as soon as possible after they have been received: http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the search instructions on that Web site to view public comments.

Electronic Access

This Federal Register document is also available from the Federal Register online database through Federal Digital System (FDsys), a service of the U.S. Government Publishing Office. This database can be accessed via the Internet at: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys.

Tables Available Only Through the Internet on the CMS Web site

In the past, a majority of the tables referred to throughout this preamble and in the Addendum to the proposed rule and the final rule were published in the Federal Register as part of the annual proposed and final rules. However, beginning in FY 2012, some of the IPPS tables and LTCH PPS tables are no longer published in the Federal Register . Instead, these tables are generally only available through the Internet. The IPPS tables for this proposed rule are available through the Internet on the CMS Web site at: http://www.cms.hhs.gov/Medicare/medicare-Fee-for-Service-Payment/AcuteInpatientPPS/index.html. Click on the link on the left side of the screen titled, "FY 2016 IPPS Proposed Rule Home Page" or "Acute Inpatient--Files for Download". The LTCH PPS tables for this FY 2016 proposed rule are available through the Internet on the CMS Web site at: http://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Medicare-Fee-for-Service-Payment/LongTermCareHospitalPPS/index.html under the list item for Regulation Number CMS-1632-P. For further details on the contents of the tables referenced in this proposed rule, we refer readers to section VI. of the Addendum to this proposed rule.

Readers who experience any problems accessing any of the tables that are posted on the CMS Web sites identified above should contact Michael Treitel at (410) 786-4552.

Acronyms

3M 3M Health Information System

AAMC Association of American Medical Colleges

ACGME Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education

ACoS American College of Surgeons

AHA American Hospital Association

AHIC American Health Information Community

AHIMA American Health Information Management Association

AHRQ Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

AJCC American Joint Committee on Cancer

ALOS Average length of stay

ALTHA Acute Long Term Hospital Association

AMA American Medical Association

AMGA American Medical Group Association

AMI Acute myocardial infarction

AOA American Osteopathic Association

APR DRG All Patient Refined Diagnosis Related Group System

APRN Advanced practice registered nurse

ARRA American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, Public Law 111-5

ASCA Administrative Simplification Compliance Act of 2002, Public Law 107-105

ASITN American Society of Interventional and Therapeutic Neuroradiology

ASPE Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation [DHHS]

ATRA American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, Public Law 112-240

BBA Balanced Budget Act of 1997, Public Law 105-33

BBRA Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP [State Children's Health Insurance Program] Balanced Budget Refinement Act of 1999, Public Law 106-113

BIPA Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP [State Children's Health Insurance Program] Benefits Improvement and Protection Act of 2000, Public Law 106-554

BLS Bureau of Labor Statistics

CABG Coronary artery bypass graft [surgery]

CAH Critical access hospital

CARE [Medicare] Continuity Assessment Record & Evaluation [Instrument]

CART CMS Abstraction & Reporting Tool

CAUTI Catheter-associated urinary tract infection

--This is a summary of a Federal Register article originally published on the page number listed below--

Proposed rule.

CFR Part: "42 CFR Part 412"

RIN Number: "RIN-0938-AS41"

Citation: "80 FR 24324"

Document Number: "[CMS-1632-P]"

Federal Register Page Number: "24324"

"Proposed Rules"