By Michael D. Williamson | November 28, 2016 3:34PM ET Nov. 28 (BNA) – Congress should keep a Medicare site-neutral payment policy for certain hospital outpatient departments, a coalition representing insurers, providers, patient advocates and employers said today. Congress should remove provisions in the 21st Century Cures legislative package that would exempt cancer hospitals and […]
About this same time last year, Congress enacted a reform that signaled growing support for common sense policies that ensure Medicare reimburses the same amount, for the same services despite the care setting – pro-patient policy that simultaneously lowers Medicare costs. Physicians, like myself, across the country praised Congress for taking this bold step and […]
Medicare already plans to stop paying certain hospital-owned physician practices at higher rates than those that are independently owned. The Alliance for Site Neutral Payment Reform has launched a new website devoted to supporting site neutral payment reforms. Aimed at lawmakers, healthcare officials and the general public, the site features research on the value of […]
Despite extensive data documenting large payment disparities across sites of service for healthcare delivery, and the opportunities for cost savings through site neutral payment reforms, healthcare leaders and policy makers still face enormous obstacles and opposition to payment parity policies that have the potential to ensure patient choice and preserve Medicare dollars. In a study […]
The House on Tuesday passed a hospital bill favored by the American Hospital Association and other industry groups, moving to amend the site-neutral payment provision passed in last year’s omnibus funding bill. Read full article >>
Patients like Gay Miller, a North Carolina resident who paid almost $900 more than her typical $60 co-pay for a routine 30-minute echocardiogram, are feeling the angst of increased out-of-pocket (OOP) costs solely attributable to a change in site of care. Gay received her echocardiogram at a hospital outpatient department (HOPD) as opposed to her […]
Joel M. Zinberg April 26, 2016 | InsideSources As policymakers struggle to rein in healthcare costs, it would seem obvious that medical services should be performed in the most efficient, lowest cost, clinically appropriate setting. But Medicare payment systems are moving outpatient care into the most expensive venues, wasting scarce insurance and patient dollars – […]
Community oncologists want Congress to stay the course on Medicare site-neutral pay policy, although they are open to exempting facilities under development, if they don’t include oncology practices, from lower pay rates in narrow circumstances. The Community Oncology Alliance fears that if Congress rolls back site-neutral restrictions or retroactively delays the policy’s start date, hospitals […]
There is likely no clear winner in the fight between hospital and physician groups who are weighing in on Medicare’s new site-neutral payment policy that goes into effect next year. Hospitals with newly acquired and almost-built physician practices located off of the main campus are hoping a congressional committee will put the brakes on payment […]
Although Congress took an initial step toward equal payments for physicians’ services regardless of where they practice when it passed the Bipartisan Budget Act last November, many office-based physicians still receive lower payments for the same services than do their colleagues in hospital outpatient settings. Read full article >>