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AHA yesterday submitted comment to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on the agency’s proposed skilled nursing facility prospective payment system for fiscal year 2021, urging CMS to support additional funds to offset the cost of critically important COVID-19 testing.

AHA said COVID-19-positive patients “are widely acknowledged to generally require substantial additional clinical and other resources… While a portion of these costs have been supported with much-appreciated emergency funds, COVID-19 testing remains a particularly costly ongoing need, with the added expectation that it will resurface during future pandemics.”

Also, AHA agreed it was appropriate for CMS to exclude selected data from the SNF value-based purchasing program, to recognize the impact of the pandemic. Read AHA’s full comments.