by
Barbara Kram, Editor | April 24, 2007
WASHINGTON, D.C. - AdvaMed President and CEO Stephen J. Ubl offered the following statement today in response to the just-released Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) rule for FY 2008:
"The measured approach taken by CMS this year is good news for seniors and disabled Americans, but the final rule needs to address the long-standing problem of charge compression.
"We are very pleased with the approach taken by CMS to implement a new system to better reflect severity of illness. The MS-DRGs maintain improvements to the patient classification system that have been made over the last few years to acknowledge rapid advancements in medical technology while improving the ability of the system to more precisely reflect the costs of more severely ill patients.
"We are disappointed, however, by CMS' failure to address charge compression. An adjustment to address this long-standing data accuracy problem should not be delayed. The RTI study that CMS commissioned proposed an appropriate adjustment that could be readily implemented in FY 2008 without disrupting hospital care, and CMS should follow RTI's expert advice. Without an adequate adjustment to account for charge compression, a systemic bias that results in less accurate payment rates will continue.
"Finally, CMS should be commended for aggressively addressing the important issue of hospital acquired infections. This is an important step toward improving the quality of inpatient hospital care for Medicare beneficiaries.
"We look forward to the opportunity to work with our member companies to further analyze the details of this rule and to share our insights with CMS as they craft a final rule."
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AdvaMed member companies produce the medical devices, diagnostic products and health information systems that are transforming health care through earlier disease detection, less invasive procedures and more effective treatments. Our members produce nearly 90 percent of the health care technology purchased annually in the United States and more than 50 percent purchased annually around the world. AdvaMed members range from the largest to the smallest medical technology innovators and companies.
