C-TAC regularly comments on proposed federal regulations on behalf of those living with serious illness and the people who care for them. Hundreds and even thousands of others comment as well, so it is unusual and encouraging when a comment is mentioned in a final rule.
Recently, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed rule for the 2025 Medicare Advantage (MA) program that amended the Part C and Part D Reporting Requirements. It noted that, “Each MA organization must have an effective procedure to develop, compile, evaluate, and report to CMS, to its enrollees, and to the general public, at the times and in the manner that CMS requires, and while safeguarding the confidentiality of the doctor-patient relationship, statistics and other information.”
C-TAC suggested changing the latter language. We pointed out that since healthcare is increasingly delivered by a wider range of roles than just physicians, they should change “doctor-patient relationship” to “clinician-patient relationship.” We went on to note that privacy and confidentiality are an issue in any relationship a patient has with their healthcare team, not just with their doctors.
CMS not only heard us, they acknowledged our comment in the final rule. In it, for which CMS received almost 3,500 comments, on page 480 they said that, “…a few commenters recommended that CMS consider a further revision to the proposed language, specifically the term “doctor-patient relationship.” They then went on to specifically quote C-TAC’s comment:
“A commenter noted that healthcare is increasingly delivered by a wider range of roles than just physicians and recommended that we replace the term “doctor-patient” with “clinician-patient” to better reflect the need for confidentiality between patients and their entire healthcare team.”
Their response was to appreciate the “suggestion to modify the regulatory text to reflect the diverse team of healthcare professionals who provide care to MA enrollees.” Accordingly, they are replacing the term “doctor patient relationship” with “provider-patient relationship.” While this wasn’t what we suggested, they noted that the term “provider” is defined in regulations and used throughout those that describe healthcare professionals and entities that provide care to MA enrollees. C-TAC will continue to advocate for the full interdisciplinary team at every opportunity.
The final rule also acknowledged comments C-TAC made about the availability of palliative care services in the PACE program.
