Site-Neutral Payment Proposals
At Politico panel, AHA highlights why site-neutral proposals would jeopardize access to patient care
A number of legislative proposals being considered by Congress would impose billions of dollars in additional Medicare payment cuts for services provided by hospital outpatient departments and reduce patient access to vital health care services, AHA Executive Vice President Stacey Hughes said today鈥
AHA today voiced support for a provision in the Lower Costs, More Transparency Act (H.R. 5378) that would suspend for two years the Medicaid disproportionate share hospital reductions scheduled to go into effect on Oct. 1, but urged House leaders to reject another provision that would permanently鈥
With only 11 days that the House and Senate are in session together before the fiscal year concludes, much of the attention in Washington is on how Congress will fund the government and whether there will be a government shutdown.
Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce, Ways and Means, and Education & Workforce Committees have released a summary of draft legislation the committees could introduce as soon as this week.
Congress is considering several bills that would impose additional site-neutral payment reductions for services provided in hospital outpatient departments (HOPDs). A description of these bills, AHA鈥檚 take on the proposals and the potential impact these proposals would have on Medicare鈥
In a letter to the editor published August 1 in the Wall Street Journal, AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack responds to a recent op-ed by former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and the Center for a Healthy America at the America First Policy Institute, which advocated for site-neutral payment policies鈥
The AHA strongly opposes policies to decrease hospital reimbursements by eliminating 鈥渇acility fees,鈥 which are the direct and indirect costs that allow a hospital to continue to provide services to patients and serve the needs of their community.
A series of recent developments in Congress are adding significant urgency to AHA鈥檚 fight against site-neutral payment and other policies that would irreparably damage hospitals鈥 abilities to care for their communities, including a move to use rate setting that would offer commercial insurers a鈥
Legislators need to be aware of the work that hospitals and health systems do now more than ever because the House and Senate are considering so-called site-neutral legislation that would further reduce Medicare funding for patient services provided by hospitals.
The House Ways and Means Committee July 26 voted 25-16 to pass the Health Care Price Transparency Act (H.R. 4822), legislation that would impose additional site-neutral payment cuts and regulatory burdens on off-campus hospital outpatient departments, impose additional Medicare sequester cuts on鈥