Very Brief Blog: CMS Ups Its Game on Opioid Crisis; Sets Up Town Halls and RFI's

CMS should be commended for several current actions it's taking to gather community information, best of breed practices, and new ideas for handling the opioid crisis.   The portfolio of events are related to SUPPORT Act Section 6032 - here.  See also the May 2019 HHS Action Plan, here.

• Public Meeting.  On September 20, 2019, CMS is hosting a full day public meeting in Baltimore on the topic, agenda here.
• Listening Session.  CMS will hold a "Listening Session" on defining and managing "outlier prescribing," here.
• RFI.  CMS has released a very well-designed and broad-ranging "request for information" (RFI) on new ways to handle the opioid crisis.  Comments are due by October 11, 2019.  Here.

The RFI is worth reading; it's a model of its type.

Why Not an RFI on Sepsis, Antibiotics, Diagnostics?

Recently, CMS has been criticized by a low level of impactful activities on the antibiotic crisis (e.g. here and here.)   While Seema Verma, the administrator, recently wrote an article on CMS's activites in that area, it would be ideal if CMS would reach out to the community for really innovative ideas on antibiotics, diagnostics, infection, sepsis, similar to the opioid RFI above.