Providers ‘concerned’ over post-acute plans

Worried provider groups have called for a slowdown in the development of Medicare cost measures for post-acute care.

Regulators are rushing complex scenarios, they say. 

The goal of the proposals is to compare resources used by skilled nursing, home health, long-term care hospitals and inpatient rehab operators. This is called for under the Improving Post-Acute Care Transformation Act of 2014.

“We are very concerned that the measure development process is moving along so quickly that relevant information is not being shared with stakeholders,” said Dan Ciolek, an American Health Care Association executive.

The measures don’t account for race or socioeconomic status of beneficiaries, providers say.

 “This is really messy,” added Cheryl Phillips, M.D., senior vice president at LeadingAge.  “CMS wants to push these out quickly and invariably runs into hiccups they didn’t anticipate.”