2019-08181. Medicare and Medicaid Programs; Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; Interoperability and Patient Access for Medicare Advantage Organization and Medicaid Managed Care Plans, State Medicaid Agencies, CHIP Agencies and CHIP Managed ...

AGENCY:

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), HHS.

ACTION:

Proposed rule; supplement and extension of comment period.

SUMMARY:

This document extends the comment period for the proposed rule entitled “Medicare and Medicaid Programs; Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; Interoperability and Patient Access for Medicare Advantage Organization and Medicaid Managed Care Plans, State Medicaid Agencies, CHIP Agencies and CHIP Managed Care Entities, Issuers of Qualified Health Plans in the Federally-facilitated Exchanges and Health Care Providers” that appeared in the March 4, 2019 Federal Register. The comment period for the proposed rule, which would end on May 3, 2019, is extended 30 days to June 3, 2019. We additionally note that based on public comments received on this proposed rule, we will adjust the effective dates of our policies to allow for adequate implementation timelines, as appropriate.

DATES:

The comment period for the proposed rule (84 FR 7610) is extended to 5 p.m., eastern daylight time, on June 3, 2019.

ADDRESSES:

You may submit comments as outlined in the March 4, 2019 proposed rule (84 FR 7610). Please choose only one method listed.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Alexandra Mugge, [phone], for issues related to interoperability, CMS health IT strategy, technical standards and patient matching.

Natalie Albright, [phone], for issues related to Medicare Advantage.

John Giles, [phone], for issues related to Medicaid.

Emily Pedneau, [phone], for issues related to Qualified Health Plans.

Meg Barry, [phone], for issues related to CHIP.

Thomas Novak, [phone], for issues related to trust exchange networks and payer to payer coordination.

Sharon Donovan, [phone], for issues related to federal-state data exchange.

Daniel Riner, [phone], for issues related to Physician Compare.

Ashley Hain, [phone], for issues related to hospital public reporting.

Melissa Singer, [phone], for issues related to provider directories.

CAPT Scott Cooper, USPHS, [phone], for issues related to hospital and critical access hospital conditions of participation.

Lisa Bari, [phone], for issues related to advancing interoperability in innovative models.

Russell Hendel, [phone], for issues related to the Collection of Information or the Regulation Impact Analysis sections.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

In the “Medicare and Medicaid Programs; Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; Interoperability and Patient Access for Medicare Advantage Organization and Medicaid Managed Care Plans, State Medicaid Agencies, CHIP Agencies and CHIP Managed Care Entities, Issuers of Qualified Health Plans in the Federally-facilitated Exchanges and Health Care Providers” proposed rule that appeared in the March 4, 2019 Federal Register (84 FR 7610), we solicited public comments on proposed policies that aim to move the health care ecosystem in the direction of interoperability, and to signal our commitment to the vision set out in the 21st Century Cures Act and Executive Order 13813 to improve access to, and the quality of, information that Americans need to make informed health care decisions, including data about health care prices and outcomes, while minimizing reporting burdens on affected plans, health care providers, or payers.

Since the issuance of the proposed rule, we have received inquiries from a variety of stakeholders, including healthcare provider organizations and industry representatives requesting an extension to the comment period. In order to maximize the opportunity for the public to provide meaningful input to CMS, we believe that it is important to allow additional time for the public to prepare comments on the proposed rule. In addition, we believe that granting an extension to the public comment period in this instance would further our overall objective to obtain public input on the proposed provisions to move the health care ecosystem in the direction of interoperability. Therefore, we are extending the comment period for the proposed rule for an additional 30 days.

While we believe it is in the best interest of the public and our proposed policies to extend the comment period for this proposed rule, we also acknowledge that stakeholders require appropriate implementation timelines that could be impacted by this extension. Therefore, we note that based on public comments received on this proposed rule, we will adjust the effective dates of our policies to allow for adequate implementation timelines as appropriate.

Dated: April 18, 2019.

Seema Verma,

Administrator, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.