Judge Tosses HHS Scheme Lowering Hospital Outpatient Payments

A federal district court judge in the District of Columbia tossed out a Trump administration scheme that lowered how much off-campus, hospital-based clinics can get paid for treating Medicare patients.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, “exceeded its statutory authority when it cut the payment rate for clinic services at off-campus provider-based clinics.”

Under the so-called “site-neutral policy” the CMS set the same Medicare payment rate for certain medical services provided in off-campus, hospital-based clinics as for those provided in ...