Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
American Hospital Association Sues Over Trump Administration Policy That Cuts Some Medicare Rates
Modern Healthcare: Hospitals Sue Over Site-Neutral Payment Policy
The American Hospital Association on Tuesday led a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the CMS' final rule imposing a site-neutral payment policy, which cuts some Medicare rates for outpatient hospital sites to match the rates for physicians' offices. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, challenges the "serious reductions to Medicare payment rates" as executive overreach. The rate reduction is scheduled to start Jan. 1. In 2019, hospitals' reimbursements will drop approximately $380 million in 2018, according to the CMS. (Luthi, 12/4)
In other news on hospitals and health systems —
Modern Healthcare: Questions Loom Over Sutter Health's Community Benefit Spending
It's virtually impossible to learn how Sutter arrives at the community benefit spending figures it reports each year, a situation that underscores how pieced-together and full of holes the community benefit reporting process is overall. A Sutter spokeswoman declined to break down its spending on broader community benefits—health services, screenings, free clinics, training health professionals and research—beyond the $124 million Sutter reported having spent last year. The health system files roughly 30 different 990 tax forms—the documents where it reports such spending to the federal government—but adding up the community benefit expenses from the tax forms does not equal the numbers in its annual reports. (Bannow, 12/4)
