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February 13, 2024
On February 8, 2024 CMS published a Final Rule titled, “Medicare and Medicaid Programs; Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; Advancing Interoperability and Improving Prior Authorization Processes for Medicare Advantage Organizations, Medicaid Managed Care Plans, State Medicaid Agencies, Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) Agencies and CHIP Managed Care Entities, Issuers of Qualified Health Plans on the Federally-Facilitated Exchanges, Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) Eligible Clinicians, and Eligible Hospitals and Critical Access Hospitals in the Medicare Promoting Interoperability Program.”
This final rule will improve the electronic exchange of health care data and streamline processes related to prior authorization through new requirements for Medicare Advantage (MA) organizations, state Medicaid fee-for-service (FFS) programs, state Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) FFS programs, Medicaid managed care plans, CHIP managed care entities, and Qualified Health Plan (QHP) issuers on the Federally-facilitated Exchanges (FFEs). This final rule will also add new measures for eligible hospitals and critical access hospitals (CAHs) to report under the Medicare Promoting Interoperability Program and for MIPS eligible clinicians to report under the Promoting Interoperability performance category of the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS). These policies, taken together, will reduce overall payer and provider burden and improve patient access to health information while continuing CMS's drive toward interoperability in the health care market. Effective 4/8/24 with implementation dates in 2026 and 2027.
- Finalizes proposal to require that impacted payers include information about certain prior authorizations in the data that are available through the Patient Access API by January 1, 2027, for MA organizations and state Medicaid and CHIP FFS programs; by the rating period beginning on or after January 1, 2027, for Medicaid managed care plans and CHIP managed care entities; and for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2027, for QHP issuers on the FFEs).
- Starting January 1, 2026, requires impacted payers to annually report to CMS certain metrics about patient data requests made via the Patient Access API.
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Finalizes proposal to require impacted payers to implement and maintain a Provider Access API that is consistent with the technical standards finalized in the CMS Interoperability and Patient Access final rule (85 FR 25558), including the Health Level Seven (HL7®) International Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®) Release 4.0.1 standard. Providers can use that API to access current patient data from payers, including adjudicated claims and encounter data (excluding provider remittances and patient cost-sharing information), all data classes and data elements included in a content standard at 45 CFR 170.213 (USCDI), and prior authorization information. For the Provider Access API policy, we are finalizing compliance dates in 2027 (by January 1, 2027, for MA organizations and state Medicaid and CHIP FFS programs; by the rating period beginning on or after January 1, 2027 for Medicaid managed care plans and CHIP managed care entities; and for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2027 for QHP issuers on the FFEs).
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Finalizes, with modifications, proposal to require impacted payers to implement and maintain a Payer-to-Payer API to exchange patient data when a patient moves between payers to ensure continued access to their health data and support continuity of care between payers. Specifically, the payer to payer data exchange will include adjudicated claims and encounter data (excluding provider remittances and patient cost-sharing information), all data classes and data elements included in a content standard at 45 CFR 170.213 (USCDI), and certain information about the patient's prior authorizations. Impacted payers will be required to request data from a patient's previous payer, with the patient's permission, no later than 1 week from the start of coverage or at the patient's request. Impacted payers will then be required to integrate any data they receive in response to that request into the patient's record, which could facilitate care continuity as patients move between payers. We are finalizing a policy that payers will be required to exchange five years of patient data, as opposed to the entire patient health record. Five years of data are sufficient to support care continuity and continuation of prior authorizations as necessary, as well as maintaining patient access to their most recent data without significant burden to payers. In addition, if a patient has two or more concurrent impacted payers, the impacted payers will be required to exchange the patient's data at least quarterly, to ensure that all impacted payers have a more complete patient record. For the Payer-to-Payer API policy, we are finalizing compliance dates in 2027 (by January 1, 2027, for MA organizations and state Medicaid and CHIP FFS programs; by the rating period beginning on or after January 1, 2027, for Medicaid managed care plans and CHIP managed care entities; and for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2027, for QHP issuers on the FFEs).
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Finalizes several new requirements for prior authorization processes that will reduce burden on patients, providers, and payers. To streamline the prior authorization process, we are requiring impacted payers to implement and maintain a Prior Authorization API. Providers can use the Prior Authorization API to determine whether a specific payer requires prior authorization for a certain item or service, thereby easing one of the major points of administrative burden in the existing prior authorization process. The Prior Authorization API will also allow providers to query the payer's prior authorization documentation requirements directly from the provider's system, which could facilitate the automated compilation of necessary information to submit a prior authorization request. For the Prior Authorization API policy, we are finalizing compliance dates in 2027 (by January 1, 2027, for MA organizations and state Medicaid and CHIP FFS programs; by the rating period beginning on or after January 1, 2027, for Medicaid managed care plans and CHIP managed care entities; and for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2027, for QHP issuers on the FFEs).
- Finalizes proposals to establish certain requirements for the prior authorization process, regardless of whether the payer receives the prior authorization request through the Prior Authorization API. We are requiring that impacted payers send notices to providers when they make a prior authorization decision, including a specific reason for denial when they deny a prior authorization request. We are also finalizing our proposal to require impacted payers, except for QHP issuers on the FFEs, to respond to prior authorization requests within certain timeframes. Finally, we are requiring all impacted payers to publicly report certain metrics about their prior authorization processes, which will enhance transparency. For these prior authorization process policies, we are finalizing compliance dates in 2026 (by January 1, 2026, for MA organizations and state Medicaid and CHIP FFS programs; by the rating period beginning on or after January 1, 2026, for Medicaid managed care plans and CHIP managed care entities; and for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2026, for QHP issuers on the FFEs).
- Finalizes with modifications, proposal for new electronic prior authorization measures for MIPS eligible clinicians under the MIPS Promoting Interoperability performance category and for eligible hospitals and CAHs under the Medicare Promoting Interoperability Program.
- Finalizes required standards at 45 CFR 170.215 applicable to each API
- Based on commenter feedback and as noted previously, delays the compliance dates in this final rule for the provisions that require API development and enhancement in 2027 (by January 1, 2027, for MA organizations and state Medicaid and CHIP FFS programs; by the rating period beginning on or after January 1, 2027, for Medicaid managed care plans and CHIP managed care entities; and for plan years beginning on or after January 1, 2027, for QHP issuers on the FFEs).
- Finalizes effective January 1, 2026 that MA organizations and applicable integrated plans must provide notice of prior authorization decisions as expeditiously as a patient's health condition requires, but no later than 7 calendar days for standard requests. For MA organizations, on or after January 1, 2026, prior authorization requests for items and services covered by the finalized requirements at 42 CFR 422.122 will be affected by this final rule; for all other items and services, existing timeframes under the MA regulations for other pre-service requests for an organization determination would remain applicable. These deadlines are reflected in amendments to 42 CFR 422.568(b)(1) (for MA plans) and 422.631(d)(2)(i) (for applicable integrated plans).
- This final rule does not change existing Federal timeframes for expedited and standard determinations on requests for Part B drugs for MA organizations and applicable integrated plans; current regulations require notice to the enrollee as expeditiously as the enrollee's health condition requires, but no later than 72 hours after receiving the request for a standard determination and as expeditiously as the enrollee's health condition requires, but no later than 24 hours after receiving an expedited request
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