September 2, 2025
Each year the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) invites stakeholders to submit comments on the proposed changes to the Outpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) and Ambulatory Surgical Center (ASC) Proposed Rule.
The Leapfrog Group’s comments on the calendar year 2026 proposed rule center around two key areas:
- Urge CMS to Retain Health Equity and SDOH Measures: We urge CMS to restore the Hospital Commitment to Health Equity (HCHE) and Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) measures across all CMS programs, including reversing their removal from the Inpatient Quality Reporting Program in the IPPS final rule.
- Support for ED Wait Time Data: We support CMS’s focus on emergency department performance and call for expanded public reporting of ED wait times to help patients and families make informed decisions, but urge CMS to publicly reporting results for each of the four underlying measures—wait times over one hour, patients leaving without evaluation, boarding times over four hours and length of stay over eight hours.
Leapfrog also comments on the following areas as detailed in our letter below:
- Hospital Outpatient Quality Reporting Program
- Ambulatory Surgery Center Reporting Program
- Rural Emergency Hospital Quality Reporting Program
- Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating
- Inpatient Only List