Date Posted: Tuesday, February 10, 2015

 

On February 6, 2015, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a final rule revising regulations for the Medicare Advantage (MA) program (Part C) and prescription drug benefit program (Part D). This final rule implements statutory requirements, improves program efficiencies, strengthens beneficiary protections, clarifies program requirements, improves payment accuracy, and makes technical changes for Contract Year (CY) 2016.

The final regulation reflects consideration of public comments to a proposed rule that was published on January 10, 2014. This February rule finalizes many, but not all, of the provisions that were proposed in the January 2014 proposed rule but not finalized in a final rule published on May 23, 2014 (CMS 4159-F). Technical suggestions received during the public comment period were considered and, in some cases, modifications were made to the original proposal.

The final rule will take effect 30 days after publication, unless otherwise noted. The applicability date for each provision corresponds with intended implementation of these changes for Contract Year 2016.

The provisions in the final rule will generally be effective for Contract Year 2016 operations. The final rule is accessible at:

https://www.federalregister.gov/public-inspection

Source: e-medbill.com