IRVING, Texas
IRVING, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Vizient, Inc. today submitted comments to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on two key Medicare regulatory proposals – the Calendar Year (CY) 2020 Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) and the CY 2020 Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) and Quality Payment Program (QPP) proposed rules. Between the two rules, CMS is proposing several policy changes that would impact Vizient members and the patients they serve.
Specifically, in Vizient’s comments on the OPPS proposed rule, we express concern to the agency regarding the ongoing cuts to 340B hospitals as well as additional reimbursement cuts to grandfathered hospital outpatient departments. Additionally, we strongly urge CMS to reconsider moving forward with policies that would require hospitals to publicly disclose payer-specific negotiated payment rates. We believe that such disclosures would not offer patients useful information, and they would increase health care costs by distorting provider-payer negotiations.
In our comments on the PFS and QPP proposed rules, Vizient applauds CMS for abandoning last year’s finalized policy regarding the consolidation of evaluation and management codes but urges caution and a careful analysis before moving forward with additional changes.
Vizient hopes that CMS will take its comments into account and continue efforts to ease regulatory burdens, while also improving the final rules in ways that will support hospitals and clinicians in their efforts to provide needed clinical services to their communities. The final rules will be released in November, with many of the policy changes going into effect Jan. 1.
Vizient is the nation’s largest health care performance improvement company serving a diverse membership that includes academic medical centers, pediatric facilities, community hospitals, integrated health care delivery networks and non-acute health care providers.
Vizient, Inc. provides solutions and services that improve the delivery of high-value care by aligning cost, quality and market performance for more than 50% of the nation’s acute care providers, which includes 95% of the nation’s academic medical centers, and more than 20% of ambulatory providers. Vizient provides expertise, analytics and advisory services, as well as a contract portfolio that represents more than $100 billion in annual purchasing volume, to improve patient outcomes and lower costs. Vizient has earned a World’s Most Ethical Company designation from the Ethisphere Institute every year since its inception. Headquartered in Irving, Texas, Vizient has offices throughout the United States. Learn more at www.vizientinc.com.
