Monday Morning Rounds with CMS

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Posted By: HHS/ONC/CMS Communications June 2, 2025

ICYMI, here is recent communication from CMS.

Events

Registration Now Open for the 2025 CMS & HL7 FHIR Connectathon

When: July 15-17, 2025
Where: Virtually
Event Page
Register for this event.

The 6th annual CMS & Health Level Seven International (HL7®) Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR®) Connectathon is a collaborative experience that will bring together health care stakeholders for three days of learning, testing, and innovation. Join developers, programmers, technology experts and analysts to learn about and test emerging FHIR Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and supporting FHIR Implementation Guides (IGs).

News

Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Treasury Announce Move to Strengthen Healthcare Price Transparency
The departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and the Treasury took action to advance President Trump’s directive to ensure Americans have clear, accurate, and actionable information about healthcare prices. The departments jointly issued a Request for Information seeking public input on how to improve prescription drug price transparency. The RFI seeks input regarding the prescription drug price disclosure requirements, including information on existing prescription drug file data elements and information on implementation generally, such as the ability of health plans to access necessary data for reporting, as well as state approaches and innovation.

Rural Community Hospital Demonstration Participation Announcement
CMS announced that 10 additional hospitals will participate in the Rural Community Hospital (RCH) Demonstration Program. The Rural Community Hospital (RCH) Demonstration tests a reasonable cost-based payment methodology for inpatient services provided by participating hospitals. RCH’s goal is to enhance the financial sustainability and service capacity of selected rural community hospitals by helping them better meet the health care needs of Medicare beneficiaries in their service areas. RCH also promotes the delivery of high-quality, efficient care.

Upcoming Deadlines

Medicare Shared Savings Program: Application Toolkit Materials

Starting May 29, CMS will accept Shared Savings Program applications through the Accountable Care Organization Management System. Apply no later than noon ET on June 12.

More Information:

Skilled Nursing Facilities: Revalidation Deadline Extended to August 1

Enrolled skilled nursing facilities should collect data on ownership, managerial, and related party information and submit their revalidation. CMS extended the deadline to August 1, 2025. See the Become a Medicare Provider or Supplier webpage for more information.

Extension of Medicare Provisions

The Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025 extended certain Medicare provisions through September 30, 2025 including but not limited to:

  • Increased inpatient hospital payment adjustment for certain low-volume hospitals
  • Medicare-dependent hospital program
  • Certain telehealth flexibilities

See the complete list of provision extensions in the Act.

2025 QPP Exception Applications are Now Available

The 2025 Quality Payment Program (QPP) Exception applications are available now through December 31, 2025, at 8 p.m. ET. There are 2 types of exception applications that allow users to indicate the reason they’re unable to report data for one or more Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) performance categories: MIPS Promoting Interoperability Performance Category Hardship Exception Application and MIPS Extreme and Uncontrollable Circumstances Exception Application.

Quality Payment Program

2023 Preview Period for Doctors and Clinicians Is Now Open
The Doctors and Clinicians Preview Period officially opened on May 27, 2025. You can preview your 2023 Quality Payment Program (QPP) performance information before it appears on the profile pages of clinicians and groups on the Medicare.gov compare tool and in the Provider Data Catalog (PDC). You’ll be able to access the secure preview on the QPP website.

MLN Matters Articles

Claims, Pricers, & Codes

CMS Innovation Center