AHA Releases Regulatory Overload Report

The American Hospital Association (AHA) recently released a report entitled Regulatory Overload: Assessing the Regulatory Burden on Health Systems, Hospitals and Post-Acute Care Providers. The report details the extent of regulations promulgated on healthcare providers, spanning four federal agencies.

AHA and Manatt Health found that the four agencies – the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the Office of Inspector General (OIG), the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) – produced 629 separate regulatory requirements across nine domains, in addition to health regulations from agencies outside the four studied. The scope of these regulations and the compliance actions required are significant – health systems, hospitals and PAC providers spend nearly $39 billion combined on compliance per year, and an average-sized hospital dedicates 59 full-time equivalents to compliance.

The AHA report also provided specific recommendations for regulatory relief, including canceling Stage 3 of Meaningful Use, suspending electronic clinical quality measure requirements, and expanding Medicare coverage of telehealth services. MSPs can find the full report here.