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Medicare: Considerations for Expansion of the Appropriate Use Criteria Program

GAO-15-816 Published: Sep 30, 2015. Publicly Released: Sep 30, 2015.
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Highlights

What GAO Found

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)—an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)—has proposed initial plans and timeframes for implementing the Medicare appropriate use criteria (AUC) program for advanced diagnostic imaging services, such as computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, and positron emission tomography. AUC are a type of clinical practice guideline intended to provide guidance on whether it is appropriate to perform a specific service for a given patient. Under the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 (PAMA), a health care provider ordering advanced diagnostic imaging services generally must consult AUC as a condition of Medicare payment for providers who furnish imaging services. Consulting AUC involves entering patient clinical data into an electronic decision tool to obtain information on the appropriateness of the service. The agency's July 2015 notice of proposed rulemaking focused largely on the process for specifying applicable AUC to be used in the program and a policy for identifying providers who must obtain authorization from CMS before ordering imaging services due to their low adherence to appropriate ordering.

CMS has proposed to qualify provider-led entities—such as national professional medical specialty societies—such that all AUC developed, endorsed, or modified by these entities would be eligible for use in the imaging program. To become a qualified source of AUC, provider-led entities must adhere to CMS standards for AUC development. The agency does not plan to evaluate and select imaging AUC itself because of the volume of those potentially available, according to CMS officials.

CMS plans to establish priority clinical areas, and providers with low adherence to appropriate ordering—as determined by the AUC—in those areas will be subject to prior authorization. The agency intends to establish a number of priority clinical areas—potentially including low back pain, nontrauma headache, or acute chest pain—through rulemaking beginning in 2016. CMS officials stated that, given the variety of clinical scenarios for which imaging services may be ordered, the aim of establishing priority clinical areas is to narrow the potential scope of prior authorization.

Medicare services with associated AUC developed by provider-led entities represent potential candidates for AUC program expansion. Medical specialty societies and health care researchers—including the American Society for Radiation Oncology, the American Society for Clinical Pathology, and researchers at Harvard Medical School—have compiled lists of services considered to be of questionable or low value in certain clinical circumstances. GAO reviewed 36 of these services and found that provider-led entities have developed associated AUC for more than half of them, according to a database of clinical practice guidelines maintained by Agency for Health Research Quality (AHRQ). Specifically, GAO found associated AUC across several service categories, including radiation therapy, clinical pathology, cardiovascular testing and procedures, cancer screenings, diagnostic and preventive testing, and preoperative testing.

Why GAO Did This Study

PAMA required the establishment of a Medicare AUC program for advanced diagnostic imaging services. The Act also included a provision for GAO to report on the extent to which AUC could be used for other Medicare services, such as radiation therapy and clinical diagnostic laboratory services.

In this report, GAO describes (1) CMS's plans for implementing the imaging AUC program and (2) examples of questionable- or low-value nonimaging services where provider-led entities have developed AUC, among other objectives. GAO reviewed CMS's July 2015 Federal Register notice of proposed rulemaking outlining its initial plans for implementing components of the imaging AUC program and also interviewed CMS and AHRQ officials. To identify services for potential AUC program expansion, GAO focused on 36 nonimaging services deemed to be of questionable or low value as identified by the American Society for Radiation Oncology, the American Society for Clinical Pathology, and a 2014 study by researchers at Harvard Medical School. GAO also examined AHRQ's National Guideline Clearinghouse to determine whether AUC developed by provider-led entities were associated with those 36 services. GAO did not evaluate the extent to which the associated AUC are suitable for program implementation. Also, the resulting set of services is illustrative and not a comprehensive list of candidates for potential AUC program expansion.

HHS provided technical comments on a draft of this report, which were incorporated where appropriate.

For more information, contact James C. Cosgrove at (202) 512-7114 or cosgrovej@gao.gov.

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BeneficiariesDisease detection or diagnosisEvaluation criteriaHealth care programsHealth care servicesHealth research programsMedicarePatient care servicesTestingTherapy