In a letter to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Seema Verma, Partnership to Improve Patient Care (PIPC) Chairman Tony Coelho expressed his concerns about the latest proposal to the Medicare Shared Savings Program to remove the requirement to submit supporting documentation related to patient-centeredness in their applications. "We are concerned that CMS would propose to remove these requirements and accept attestation in their place," said Chairman Coelho. "Although we understand that CMS is attempting to lessen the burden on ACO applicants, we believe that it is imperative that ACOs be held to the highest possible standard for patient-centeredness."
Chairman Coelho also stated that "A further underlying challenge is that CMS has not set forth a clear definition for what it means for an ACO, or any other alternative payment model (APM), to be patient-centered, nor does the agency have an ongoing relationship with patients who are beneficiaries of ACOs to attest to meeting any definition of “patient-centeredness. The rule proposes to abdicate responsibility for enforcing that ACOs actually be patient-centered, instead of proposing a path to defining patient-centeredness in a manner that is understandable and accepted by all stakeholders."
The letter in its entirety can be read below.
The letter in its entirety can be read below.
| pipc_mssp_comments.pdf |