News: AHA continues fight against CMS price transparency, star ratings on hold

The American Hospital Association (AHA) responded to the CMS fiscal year (FY) 2021 Inpatient Prospective Payment Systems (IPPS) proposed rule with continued disapproval of CMS’ price transparency rule.

In a statement, the AHA said they are disappointed that CMS “continues down the unlawful path of requiring hospitals to disclose privately negotiated contract terms.” The organization notes that disclosing these privately negotiated rates will not assist in CMS’s goal of “paying market rates that reflect the cost of delivering care,” adding that “these rates take into account any number of unique circumstances between a private payer and a hospital and simply are not relevant for fixing Free-for-Service Medicare reimbursement.”

The organization argues that disclosing negotiated price rates violate the First Amendment, being these rates are protected proprietary information.

In the FY 2021 IPPS proposed rule, CMS said the hospital star rating methodology would be updated. These updates, however, will remain on hold until future rulemaking because of other adaptations dude to COVID-19.

Editor’s note: The FY 2021 IPPS proposed rule can be found here. Previous information on price transparency ruling can be found here. The AHA statement can be found here.