Hospital leaders today urged their federal legislators to support certain provisions critical to patients and hospitals before adjourning this legislative session. Specifically, they urged federal legislators to continue to encourage the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to provide flexibility in implementing the “site-neutral” payment provisions of last year’s Bipartisan Budget Act. As drafted, the agency’s proposals would not directly provide payment to hospitals next year for services provided to patients at off-campus hospital outpatient departments that started billing Medicare after the law was enacted. Off-campus HOPDs that were already billing Medicare as of that date would not be compensated for new service lines nor reimbursed if they relocate or expand their facility. Hospital leaders also urged their senators to enact House-passed legislation (H.R. 5273) that would adjust the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program for socioeconomic and other social risk factors beyond hospitals’ control. While hospitals have reduced readmissions by 565,000 since 2010, the program has penalized them by $1.9 billion, a new AHA infographic notes. “Every day is an advocacy day here in Washington – your voice is very important because you live, you work and, most importantly, you vote in the districts and states of your legislators,” AHA President and CEO Rick Pollack told attendees at the AHA Advocacy Day before they went to Capitol Hill. “And when you reinforce the message we send every day, we become a very powerful voice on behalf of patients and the communities we serve.”

Related News Articles

Perspective
Public
The 2025 AHA Leadership Summit wrapped up on July 22, and as always, it was energizing and inspiring to connect with so many talented and dedicated people…
Headline
The AHA July 24 announced it is collaborating with health care technology leader Epic to help hospitals adopt tools that support the early detection and…
Headline
Carolyn Bogard, DNP, R.N., director of care coordination and palliative care at El Camino Health, talks about her system’s use of data to harness the passion…
Headline
The Food and Drug Administration has identified a Class I recall of certain lots of Medline Industries Craniotomy Kits containing recalled Codman…
Headline
Hartford HealthCare in Hartford, Conn., will receive the 2025 AHA Quest for Quality Prize as a result of their sweeping transformation over the past decade —…
Headline
A Q&A in the July edition of AHA Trustee Insights features leaders from Winchester Hospital in Massachusetts discussing the importance of board members…