Medicare to Save $650 Million Under Outpatient Pay Proposal

The Medicare agency is sticking to its plan to pay the same rate for patient visits to doctors’ offices and off-campus, hospital-based clinics despite a lawsuit and lobbying efforts to reverse the policy.

The reason? More than $800 million in savings. Taxpayers would save an estimated $650 million in 2020 and Medicare patients would save another $160 million in out-of-pocket costs at outpatient facilities under a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services proposal.

The projected savings would come after a two-year phase-in of a policy change that saw Medicare reduce payments to hospital outpatient clinics in order to discourage ...