Two key senators launched a bipartisan plan Friday to require Medicare to pay the identical charge for a similar service, no matter the place the service is delivered.
The “site-neutral” fee reform plan from Sens. Invoice Cassidy (R-La.) and Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) is aimed toward stopping hospitals from getting extra money from Medicare for procedures that may be achieved in cheaper settings, like a doctor workplace or an ambulatory surgical middle.
In line with Cassidy and Hassan, the plan will save taxpayers billions of {dollars}. They proposed equalizing funds for some companies supplied in off-campus hospital outpatient departments with what Medicare pays for doctor places of work.
“Patients should not be forced to pay higher bills just because their regular doctor’s office was purchased by a hospital,” Hassan stated. “There is bipartisan agreement that by pursuing site neutral payment in Medicare, we can lower costs and ensure that more people can get the health care that they need.”
However hospitals have lengthy fought off any makes an attempt to equalize fee charges, arguing such a transfer would damage rural suppliers and those who depend on a excessive proportion of Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement. Hospitals additionally argue they’ve greater overhead prices, and so want greater reimbursements.
To fight that concern, the plan would reinvest a few of the financial savings into rural and security web hospitals via Medicare. The plan would additionally create one other bonus for hospitals to maintain offering companies like maternity care, trauma facilities, burn models and neonatal intensive care models.
“If the same care can be safely provided in different settings, patients should not pay hundreds more simply because their doctor works in a hospital. Our framework provides a path to ensure that,” Cassidy stated in an announcement.
Cassidy is at the moment rating member of the Senate well being committee and stands to take over the chairmanship if Republicans win management.
There was a disconnect between Home and Senate Republicans on website impartial funds, and the proposal faces lengthy odds as at the moment designed. It was additionally launched as a coverage paper, not legislative textual content.
Final yr, Home Republicans wished to make use of the financial savings from a website impartial companies coverage to pay for extending expiring well being applications. However Senate Republicans feared rural hospital losses and weren’t on board.
Regardless of the reinvestment provision, hospital teams instantly blasted the proposal.
“Simply put, this framework from Senators Hassan and Cassidy will limit and eliminate critical hospital-based care, resulting in increased wait times and decreased access to care for patients,” stated Stacey Hughes, government vice chairman of the American Hospital Affiliation. She stated the framework proposes “dramatic and untenable Medicare cuts, reducing seniors’ access to critical hospital-based care.”
The Federation of American Hospitals equally stated the plan equates to Medicare cuts that “threaten access to 24/7 hospital care – a framework Congress has rejected time and again,” stated Charlene MacDonald, the group’s government vice chairman of public affairs.
