Hospital Groups Decry Medicare Site-Neutral Payment Policy

A law erasing Medicare payment differences between hospital outpatient departments and hospital-owned physician offices “seriously impedes” access to outpatient services and should be changed, a hospital group said Feb. 19.

Equalized, or site-neutral payments, have led to an approximately 50 percent payment reduction for many outpatient services, and in some instances, close to a 90 percent cut, according to the letter from America’s Essential Hospitals. The group, an industry group for safety-net hospitals, sent their views to two Republican leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Subcommittee on Health Chairman Joe Pitts (R-Pa.) ...