Feature

CMS seeks answers on prior authorization, other hassles to eliminate


 

Got an idea on how to reduce administrative burden to help reduce the cost of delivering health care? The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services wants to hear from you.

In a request for information published June 6, the agency seeks parties across the health care spectrum “to recommend further changes to rules, policies, and procedures that would shift more of clinicians’ time and our health care system’s resources from needless paperwork to high-quality care that improves patient health,” CMS officials said in a statement.

The request for information, part of the agency’s Patients Over Paperwork initiative, seeks suggestions on how to reduce hassles associated with reporting and documentation, coding, prior authorization, rural issues, dual eligible patients, enrollment/eligibility determination and the agency’s own process for issuing regulations and policies.

“Patients over Paperwork has made great inroads in clearing away needlessly complex, outdated, or duplicative requirements that drain clinicians’ time but contribute little to quality of care or patient health,” CMS Administrator Seema Verma said in a statement. “Our goal is to ensure that doctors are spending more time with their patients and less time in administrative tasks.”

The request for information is scheduled to published in the Federal Register on June 11. Comments are due to the agency on Aug. 12. Comments can be made at www.regulations.gov and should refer to file code CMS-6082-NC.

SOURCE: Federal Register, CMS-6082-NC, https://federalregister.gov/d/2019-12215.

Recommended Reading

More than 40% of U.K. physicians report binge drinking
MDedge Pediatrics
CMS targets ‘spread pricing’ to help lower drug costs
MDedge Pediatrics
House committee debates single-payer health care design
MDedge Pediatrics
Trump administration plans to repeal transgender health care protections
MDedge Pediatrics
Patient-centered care in clinic
MDedge Pediatrics
Legal duty to nonpatients: Communicable diseases
MDedge Pediatrics
Measles cases now at highest level since 1992
MDedge Pediatrics
Cannabis: Doctors tell FDA to get out of the weeds
MDedge Pediatrics
Sharing notes with patients improves medication comprehension
MDedge Pediatrics
A large employer ‘frames’ the Medicare-for-all debate
MDedge Pediatrics