Health Law Scan

For those providers—and there are more than a few—that believe the administrative and regulatory burdens associated with participating in the Medicare and Medicaid programs negatively affect their ability to furnish high-quality, cost-effective healthcare, now is the time to make your voice heard! On June 11, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the US Department of Treasury released a request for information (RFI) on Reducing Administrative Burden to Put Patients Over Paperwork.

In CMS’s continuing effort to take “a strategic approach to protecting taxpayer dollars and reducing regulation to put patients over paperwork,” Administrator Seema Verma recently highlighted changes to the Recovery Audit Program that are intended to make the program more provider friendly. Recovery Audit Contractors (RACs) review payments made to healthcare providers under Medicare Fee-for-Service plans. RACs have been controversial among providers due to concerns about their accuracy.

In an opinion of significant importance to the administration of the Medicare program, the US Supreme Court issued a 7–1 decision requiring the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to follow notice and comment rulemaking when adopting a “statement of policy” that establishes or changes a “substantive legal standard.”

Healthcare partners Al Shay and Howard Young and associate Jake Harper recently contributed to the Health Care Compliance Legal Issues Manual, a publication by the American Health Lawyers Association (AHLA).