June 1, 2026
Each year the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) invites stakeholders to submit comments on the proposed changes to Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) rule.
We appreciate the opportunity to submit comments to CMS on the proposed changes. This proposed rule is one of the most promising for quality of care that Leapfrog has ever seen. There are two areas in the proposed rule for which we’d like to express our strongest possible support.
- Inclusion of Medicare Advantage: We strongly support CMS's move toward including Medicare Advantage in the calculation of some measures in the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting Program, as outlined in this proposed rule. With approximately half of all Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan, their exclusion creates a significant gap in the data, overlooking the quality of care for tens of millions of beneficiaries and limiting patients' and families' ability to make fully informed decisions about where to seek care. This will close that gap, which will be very beneficial for patients, families and employers.
- Unique Device Identifiers: We strongly support CMS's proposal to modify the Public Health and Clinical Data Exchange objective to add a measure tracking Unique Device Identifiers (UDI) for implantable medical devices and urge CMS to finalize it. When a device is linked to an adverse event or recall, the ability to quickly and accurately identify every affected patient can be the difference between a timely intervention and a delayed one — a challenge made more complex by the fact that implantable devices remain in the body long after the initial procedure. Standardizing UDI capture in electronic health records will build the infrastructure needed to connect device data across care settings and over time, strengthening post-market surveillance and the nation's ability to detect safety signals early.
Click the button below to view Leapfrog’s letter and fill out the web form below by Monday, June 8 at 5:00 P.M. E.T. to sign-on.