In This Issue:

Implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA); Other HHS and Federal Regulatory Initiatives; Other Health Care News; and Hearings and Markups Scheduled.

Excerpt from Implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA)

On April 9th the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a proposed rule implementing many of the administrative simplification provisions of the ACA. The proposed rule would give each health plan a unique, standardized identifier to be used by providers and others transacting with the plan. The rule also pushes back the deadline by which providers will be required to comply with ICD-10, the system of disease and treatment codes published by the World Health Organization (WHO), by one year, to October 1, 2014. Providers had expressed concern that the new system is overly complex and burdensome to implement.

On April 10th the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced the selection of twenty-seven organizations as Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) under the Medicare Shared Savings Program. These are the first ACOs to be approved under the program, although 32 “Pioneer ACOs” have been functioning under a separate program since December 2011. CMS is reviewing 150 additional applications for approval by July.