News Release
March 9, 2020 

NAACOS Applauds New Medicare Requirement on Hospitalization Alerts

Attributed to Clif Gaus, Sc.D., President and CEO of the National Association of ACOs

Today’s requirement from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) that hospitals share electronic notifications of patient’s admission, discharge, and/or transfer is a win for better population health management. With this change, ACOs can learn when one of their patients enters or leaves the hospital, allowing that patient’s primary clinician to step in and provide appropriate, well-coordinated care. We are grateful CMS listened to our request to add patient visits to the emergency department as part of its new requirements. For our health system to move to one that rewards value and supports alternative payment models, providers must be given appropriate data about their patients, and this includes alerts on hospitalizations. 

NAACOS was a strong supporter of this requirement when CMS proposed it last year and is pleased to see this important rule finalized. NAACOS thanks CMS Administrator Seema Verma, for creating this vital change. While we continue to review the final rules released today, our health system needs better patient-data sharing to help move to a value-based payment system. 

Contact:
David Pittman
NAACOS Health Policy and Communications Advisor
202-640-2689 or dpittman@naacos.com