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ASNC Leads New Multisociety Letter Urging CMS to Publicly Report Obstacles to AUC Program Implementation
Citing the new exceptions to the Stark law regulations, ASNC and 15 other groups last week urged CMS to rethink the Appropriate Use Criteria Program.
"[B]y finalizing new exceptions to the physician self-referral law for value-based arrangements, CMS is relying on the premise that a value-based health care delivery and payment system, by design, provides safeguards against overutilization," the societies wrote. "We agree." ASNC and the other groups point out that "it has been six years since the 'Protecting Access to Medicare Act' was enacted and there is no indication from CMS the Program can be implemented to the full extent of the law." The letter goes on to cite cost and administrative burdens practices will face. For example, "it will cost $75,000 or more for a practice to implement a clinical decision support mechanism to comply with the rules of the AUC Program," according to the Association for Medical Imaging Management.