The American Hospital Association has asked federal lawmakers to reject proposed pay cuts for post-acute care.
Cuts included in the president's fiscal year 2014 budget and proposals from CMS and the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission are "arbitrary" and would threaten patients' access to medically necessary services, AHA Executive Vice President Rick Pollack wrote in a letter to the
The AHA is particularly concerned by a CMS proposal under which a subset of long-term care hospital patients would be paid for under the inpatient prospective payment system rather than the long-term care hospital system because they don't meet "chronically critically ill" criteria. Less than 35 percent of long-term care hospital patients would meet those requirements, according to the AHA. The AHA is also troubled by a proposal from the Obama administration to reduce inpatient rehabilitation facilities to skilled nursing facility levels for pulmonary conditions, hip and knee conditions and other ailments selected by the HHS secretary.
Both of these proposals lack a clear and reliable method to identify clinically similar patients receiving treatment in different settings, Mr. Pollack wrote.
The AHA supports meaningful reforms to reduce costs and improve care — such as pay-for-performance efforts and quality reporting — that protect patients' access to services, according to Mr. Pollack.
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