[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 83 (Tuesday, April 30, 2019)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 18215-18216]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-08691]
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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
42 CFR Part 422
[CMS-4185-N3]
RIN 0938-AT59
Medicare and Medicaid Programs; Risk Adjustment Data Validation
AGENCY: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), HHS.
ACTION: Proposed rule; extension of comment period and the announcement
of the release of additional data.
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SUMMARY: This document extends the comment period for the Risk
Adjustment Data Validation (RADV) provisions of the proposed rule
titled ``Medicare and Medicaid Programs; Policy and Technical Changes
to the Medicare Advantage, Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit, Program
of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE), Medicaid Fee-For-Service,
and Medicaid Managed Care Programs for
[[Page 18216]]
Years 2020 and 2021'' that was published in the November 1, 2018
Federal Register. The comment period for the RADV provision of this
proposed rule, which would end on April 30, 2019, is extended by 120
days until August 28, 2019. This document also announces that CMS will
be releasing additional data underlying the FFS Adjuster Study released
October 26, 2018.
DATES: The comment period for RADV provisions (that is, section II.C.2.
of the November 1, 2018 proposed rule and proposed Sec. Sec. 422.300,
422.310(e) and 422.311(a) of the regulations text), published on
November 1, 2018 (83 FR 54982), and extended on December 27, 2018 (83
FR 66661), is further extended to 5 p.m. on August 28, 2019.
ADDRESSES: In commenting, please refer to file code CMS-4185-P. Because
of staff and resource limitations, we cannot accept comments by
facsimile (FAX) transmission.
Comments, including mass comment submissions, must be submitted in
one of the following three ways (please choose only one of the ways
listed):
1. Electronically. You may submit electronic comments on this
regulation to http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the ``Submit a
comment'' instructions.
2. By regular mail. You may mail written comments to the following
address ONLY: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Department of
Health and Human Services, Attention: CMS-4185-P, P.O. Box 8013,
Baltimore, MD 21244-8013.
Please allow sufficient time for mailed comments to be received
before the close of the comment period.
3. By express or overnight mail. You may send written comments to
the following address ONLY: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services,
Department of Health and Human Services, Attention: CMS-4185-P, Mail
Stop C4-26-05, 7500 Security Boulevard, Baltimore, MD 21244-1850.
For information on viewing public comments, see the beginning of
the SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jonathan Smith (410) 786-4671 or
Joanne Davis (410) 786-5127.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
Inspection of Public Comments: All comments received before the
close of the comment period are available for viewing by the public,
including any personally identifiable or confidential business
information that is included in a comment. We post all comments
received before the close of the comment period on the following
website as soon as possible after they have been received: http://www.regulations.gov. Follow the search instructions on that website to
view public comments.
Extension of the Public Comment Period
In the November 1, 2018 proposed rule (83 FR 54982) titled,
``Medicare and Medicaid Programs; Policy and Technical Changes to the
Medicare Advantage, Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit, Program of All-
inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE), Medicaid Fee-For-Service, and
Medicaid Managed Care Programs for Years 2020 and 2021,'' we included
preamble language and regulatory provisions regarding the proposed Risk
Adjustment Data Validation audit methodology and the proposal not to
apply a Fee-For-Service (FFS) Adjuster. We posted a FFS Adjuster Study
on October 26, 2018.
In the March 6, 2019 Federal Register (84 FR 8069), we published a
document titled ``Medicare Program; Release of Data Underlying Risk
Adjustment Data Validation Provisions'' that announced the release of
data underlying the proposed policies regarding the use of
extrapolation in MA Risk Adjustment Data Validation (RADV) audits and
the Fee-for-Service (FFS) Adjuster.
CMS is announcing the release of additional data underlying the
October 26, 2018 FFS Adjuster Study. Updates to existing documentation
related to the study data, as well as additional data without
Personally Identifiable Information, were posted on the CPI Private
Plans Team website on April 25, 2019. Additional data containing
Protected Health Information are being made available by CMS to all
parties who have entered into an applicable data use agreement and to
those parties who can request this information if they agree to enter
into an applicable data use agreement. CMS expects to release that data
by June 14th. This will be the final release of data from the October
26, 2018 FFS Adjuster Study.
In addition to releasing this additional data from the previously
published study, CMS intends to replicate that study, publish the
results, and release associated data. Doing so will allow CMS to both
test its initial results and release a more complete set of underlying
data. Certain intermediate data elements not saved in the
implementation of the initial study would be preserved in the
replication and made available through publication.
In order to maximize the opportunity for the public to provide
meaningful input to CMS, we believe it is important to allow additional
time for the public to prepare comments on the RADV provisions of the
proposed rule. In addition, we believe granting a 120-day extension to
the public comment period in this instance would further our overall
objective to obtain public input and to generate information that will
be useful to our agency's decision makers. Therefore, this document
announces the extension of the public comment period until August 28,
2019 for the RADV provisions included in the November 1, 2018 proposed
rule (83 FR 55037 through 55041 and 55077).
Dated: April, 22, 2019.
Seema Verma,
Administrator, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
[FR Doc. 2019-08691 Filed 4-25-19; 4:15 pm]
BILLING CODE 4120-01-P