Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

If you were looking forward to taking advantage of new bundled payment offerings in the coming months, think again.

Long known as an adversary of mandatory bundling, HHS Secretary Thomas Price put his money where his mouth is. CMS published an interim final rule in the Federal Register, delaying the release of the “Advancing Care Coordination Through Episode Payment Models (EPMs) Cardiac Rehabilitation Incentive Payment Model; and Changes to the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement Model” final rule until May 20, 2017. Read the interim rule at: https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2017-05692.pdf.

“This additional 3-month delay is necessary to allow time for additional review, to ensure that the agency has adequate time to undertake notice and comment rulemaking to modify the policy if modifications are warranted,” the Federal Register ruling said.

In addition, CMS has decided to change the roll out date from July 1, 2017, to Oct. 1, 2017, to coincide with the three-month review period, adding that it wants “participants [to] have a clear understanding of the governing rules” so they won’t be forced to take “needless compliance steps” if the EPMs are modified.

Public comments must be received no later than 5 p.m., 30 days after March 21, 2017, the rule states and can be submitted four different ways (electronically, by mail, express mail, and courier/hand delivery) using form CMS-5519-IFC.

For information on how to give your input on the EPMs, visit www.regulations.gov.