The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission should not finalize its draft recommendation to reduce payments for off-campus stand-alone emergency departments located within six miles of an on-campus hospital ED, which is not based on any analysis of Medicare beneficiaries, Medicare costs or Medicare payments and would make Medicare’s record underpayment of outpatient departments and hospitals even worse, AHA said in comments submitted Friday. Medicare margins were a record-low negative 14.8% for hospital outpatient departments and negative 9.6% for hospitals overall in 2016, with the latter expected to reach negative 11% this year, the letter notes. In other comments, AHA voiced support for a draft recommendation to allow isolated rural hospitals to convert to stand-alone EDs, and urged the commission to consider expanding the recommendation to include EDs in vulnerable urban communities as well. AHA also urged MedPAC to modify its payment adequacy calculations for long-term care hospitals to incorporate all LTCH cases. MedPAC is expected to review and vote on the ED recommendations at its April 5-6 meeting. 

Related News Articles

Headline
President Trump today released his discretionary spending budget blueprint for fiscal year 2026. The “skinny budget” request, which includes top line…
Perspective
Public
The House Energy & Commerce Committee in just over a week is expected to mark up its portion of the budget reconciliation bill to enact key pieces of…
Headline
The AHA April 30 released a report highlighting how hospitals and health systems continue to experience significant financial headwinds that can challenge…
Headline
The Supreme Court April 29 ruled 7-2 in favor of the Department of Health and Human Services in a case that challenged how HHS applied Congress’ formula for…
Headline
The House Energy and Commerce Committee held a markup April 29 where it advanced the AHA-supported SUPPORT Act (H.R. 2483). The legislation would reauthorize…
Perspective
Public
Just 16 days from now, more than 1,000 hospital and health system leaders from across the country will arrive in Washington, D.C., for the 2025 AHA Annual…