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.
