Medicare Slashes Hospital Outpatient Payment Rates; Will Comp Follow?

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is under fire for a change to the Medicare fee schedule that slashes payment rates for certain hospital outpatient services this year. The American Hospital Association has sued HHS over the change, which it calls an ill-advised and unlawful payment reduction to the outpatient prospective payment system. The AHA lawsuit, filed Dec. 4, was followed by a lawsuit that 38 hospitals across the country filed Jan. 18 in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. AHA and others are taking issue with the Medicare fee schedule’s “sit...