AHA makes recommendations to CMS on strengthening domestic supply chain for PPE, essential medicines

The AHA today submitted comments to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking on potential options to strengthen the supply chain for American-made personal protective equipment and essential medicines. The AHA agreed with CMS’ approach to provide incentives to hospitals and health systems to purchase domestically made products and said that such incentives should be accessible to as many hospitals as possible, recognize the cost differential for domestically manufactured goods and be implemented without excessive administrative burden. The AHA made additional recommendations to CMS, including making a public designation voluntary based on domestic procurement percentages, implementing separate Medicare payments in a non-budget-neutral manner, and deprioritizing the development of a structural measure in the inpatient quality reporting program.