The AHA today outlined its opposition to a potential policy under consideration by Congress that would cut payments to hospitals treating hospice patients. The policy stems from a 2013 Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General report that recommended a hospital transfer payment policy for early discharges to hospice care. “Hospitals discharge patients to hospice because the hospice setting is the most appropriate for delivering the care they need to meet their health needs and care goals,” AHA Executive Vice President Tom Nickels wrote to members of the U.S. House and Senate. “We believe the OIG’s recommendation, and the assumed resulting savings, fails to account for fundamental payment realities in the Inpatient Prospective Payment System as well as the real-world care that physicians and nurses provide to cancer and other hospice patients. Expanding the post-acute care transfer policy to also apply to discharges to hospice is not based on sound policy.”

Related News Articles

Headline
The AHA and Federation of American Hospitals Aug. 8 filed an amicus brief in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in support of the U.S.…
Headline
The National Institutes of Health Aug. 5 issued guidance to researchers on the use of artificial intelligence for the research application process. According…
Headline
The U.S. Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and the Treasury announced Aug. 7 that they are reconsidering the definition of short-term, limited-…
Headline
The AHA, joined by several other national groups representing 340B hospitals, Aug. 8 urged the Health Resources and Services Administration to extend the…
Headline
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services adopted Aug. 4 the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices…
Headline
President Trump Aug. 7 issued an executive order, “Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking,” requiring government agencies to review new and discretionary…