AHA expresses concern over CMS announcement to tighten ACO fraud and abuse waivers

The American Hospital Association sent a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services expressing concern over CMS’s announcement that it plans to narrow legal definitions regarding fraud and abuse waivers for ACOs in the future, according to Modern Healthcare. 

According to the article, CMS announced in that it planned to tighten some ACO fraud-and-abuse waivers by narrowing legal definitions after two years.  The regulations that CMS originally proposed for ACOs were seen as too strict, so the final rules, released in October 2011, loosened the requirements.  

In the letter, The AHA urged CMS to declare that it would only make material changes to the rules after a public notice-and-comment period.

(Sources: The Advisory Board Daily Briefing, http://advisory.com, January 5, 2012, Modern HealthCare, http://www.modernhealthcare.com (subscription required), January 6, 2012; American Hospital Association, http://www.aha.org, January 3, 2012)