The ACC submitted formal comments on June 5 to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) regarding the Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) proposed rule. The letter supports the agency’s efforts to improve health equity by incentivizing care for people who are unhoused, and provides feedback on other provisions tied to medical data exchange processes, reimbursement for concomitant cardiac procedures, and a proposed mandatory episode-based payment program called the Transforming Episode Accountability Model (TEAM).

Among the highlights from the ACC’s comments:

• Support for new Medicare Severity-Diagnosis Related Group (MS-DRG) to address concomitant left atrial appendage closure and cardiac ablations
• Support to change social determinants of health diagnosis codes for inadequate housing and housing instability from non-complicating conditions to complicating conditions within MS-DRGs
• Suggested amendments to TEAM that would help maximize the program’s efficacy and reduce negative unintended consequences
• Feedback on requests for information regarding the Medicare Interoperability Program
• Feedback on replacing Clinical Episode-Based Payment Measures with Medicare Spend Per Beneficiary Hospital Measures

Read the full ACC comment letter here. For more information on the IPPS proposed rule, view the full text, press release and fact sheet provided by CMS. ACC members can submit their own comments by Friday, June 10. A final rule is expected in early August.