AMCP Comment Letter on Health Technology Ecosystem

On Friday, November 21, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released CY 2026 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) and Ambulatory Surgical Center (ASC) payments Final Rule, updating Medicare rates and announcing policy changes. The rule includes payment increases for hospitals and ASCs meeting quality reporting requirements and outlines significant reforms related to drug payment and procedural lists. There is a 30-day notice for comments on IRA negotiation factors for 2028 (comment period will begin once forms are published).

As mostly non-pediatric organizations representing public health, older adults, patients, family caregivers, consumers and healthcare workers, we support everyone having access to every vaccine they need, regardless of their age. In the United States alone, routine childhood vaccinations for children born between 1994 and 2023 are projected to prevent about 1.13 million deaths, and hundreds of millions of illnesses and hospitalizations. Put simply, childhood vaccines make healthy adults.

On Nov. 9, the Senate voted to end the longest federal government shutdown in history, with Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) promising to hold a floor vote on a bill to extend the expiring Affordable Care Act (ACA) enhanced premium tax credits (PTCs) in mid-December. On Nov. 19, the Senate Committee on Finance held a hearing to discuss solutions to lower Americans’ health care costs, in which witnesses and Senators primarily focused on the role of the ACA.