Saturday, February 27, 2016

CMS Withdraws Poorly Designed Anti PSA Screening Metric

Last fall, this blog and other sources severely criticized a proposed CMS metric against PSA screening ( my November blog here).  Even without taking a stand pro or con PSA screening, the wording and rules for the proposed CMS metric was not even consistent with the CMS NCD for diagnostic use of PSA in cancer management.

On February 26, 2016, the AUA announced CMS had withdrawn from further work on the poorly constructed metric (here).

CMS has other inconsistent coverage rules versus physician performance metrics.  For example, the CMS coverage benefit for colon cancer screening COVERS the Exact Sciences Cologuard test, but it is NOT covered by the CMS metric for physician performance in getting their patients colon cancer screened.   See "Medicare is Inconsistent" heading at this blog entry.