The COVID-19 public health emergency continues to demonstrate the need for reliable access to health care, especially for older adults and people with disabilities. The pandemic makes it crucial to protect Medicare’s ability to provide guaranteed coverage and meet the changing and urgent needs of the populations it serves. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) also must have the bandwidth to shift focus and respond quickly to immediate and emergent issues. Thousands of lives are at stake.
The SUNSET proposed rule would unnecessarily impose retroactive expiration provisions on most Medicare regulations, which would leave beneficiaries, providers, payers, professionals, advocates, and the general public on constantly shifting ground, unable to rely on finalized rules or to predict which regulatory requirements will be extant in any given year. Such a proposal, if put into effect, would undermine stability, increase burdens, and cause chaos. We also expect that it would cause payers and providers to refuse to participate in Medicare, leading to access issues for beneficiaries.
