Although it took several comment cycles and a lawsuit for the agency to hear reason, members of the Premier healthcare alliance are extremely pleased that CMS finally saw the light and proposed to terminate their flawed Two Midnight payment cut in the Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) rule. As we have stated in the past, CMS provided virtually no justification for these cuts that do little more than exacerbate the inadequate reimbursement reality facing hospitals under Medicare.
In comments, we will also be taking a close look at the rule's proposed -1.5% adjustment to recover for documentation and coding. In the past, CMS indicated that they were on track to recover these funds. Yet this year, the reduction has almost doubled, with CMS maintaining it still has to recover more than $5 billion from hospitals. This high uptick seems dramatic and excessive, and we will be carefully reviewing CMS's methodology for setting the adjustment to ensure there were no flaws in the calculation.
- Blair Childs, Senior Vice President of Public Affairs, Premier Inc.
Premier Inc. issued this content on 19 April 2016 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 19 April 2016 13:25:30 UTC
Original Document: https://www.premierinc.com/premier-statement-proposed-ipps-rule-2/
Premier, Inc. is a healthcare improvement company uniting an alliance of approximately 4,350 United States hospitals and health systems and approximately 300,000 other providers and organizations. It operates through two segments: Supply Chain Services and Performance Services. The Supply Chain Services segment includes the Companyâs group purchasing organizations (GPO), supply chain co-management, purchased services, and direct sourcing activities. The Performance Services segment consists of three sub-brands, which include PINC AI, the Companyâs technology and services platform; Contigo Health, the Companyâs direct-to-employer business; and Remitra, the Companyâs digital invoicing and payables business. It delivers technology-enabled platform that offers critical supply chain services, clinical, financial, operational and value-based care software as a service (SaaS) as well as clinical and enterprise analytics licenses, consulting services, and third-party administrator services.
PREMIER, INC. 
