The AAMC joined several other health care organizations to submit a letter on Jan. 12 (PDF) to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) urging the agency to correct an FAQ document (PDF) to make it clear that hospitals and health systems are not required to complete the agency’s Outpatient Prospective Payment System Drug Acquisition Cost Survey. In questions 1.5 and 1.7 of the FAQ, the agency states that all Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) hospitals “are to,” participate in the survey and submit acquisition cost data, seemingly conflicting with the CMS’ previous statements that the survey is not mandatory.
In the CY 2026 Hospital OPPS final rule, the CMS finalized a new drug acquisition cost survey for all hospitals paid under the OPPS for separately payable drugs and stated that the results of the survey would be used to establish payment rates for separately payable drugs in the calendar year 2027 rulemaking. In the final rule, the agency explicitly stated: “We agree that section 1833(t)(14)(D) of the Act does not itself mandate specific consequences … on hospitals for failing to respond to that survey.”
In addition to the AAMC, the letter was signed by the American Hospital Association, America’s Essential Hospitals, the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, the Catholic Health Association, Children’s Hospital Association, the National Rural Health Association, and 340B Health.