Fact Sheets
The American Hospital Association (AHA) fact sheets on important issues facing hospitals and health systems. Fact Sheets define the terms of issues facing hospitals and health systems and provide in-depth explanations of the AHA's position on these issues.
Congress is considering legislation that would change current billing practices for Medicare and the commercial insurance market to require each off-campus hospital outpatient department (HOPD) to be assigned a unique NPI as a condition of payment.
Since going into effect, CMS has made several changes to the Hospital Price Transparency Rule requirements on hospitals. The most recent set of changes, including requiring hospitals to use a standard machine-readable file format, go into effect July 1, 2024.
It is broadly acknowledged that Medicare reimburses hospitals less than the cost of providing care and their reimbursement rates are non-negotiable.
NEW: National and State Impacts of Site-neutral Provisions in the Lower Costs, More Transparency Act (H.R. 5378
The Bipartisan Primary Care and Health Workforce Expansion Act (S. 2840) includes a provision that would prevent doctors and hospitals from negotiating reasonable agreements with commercial health insurance plans.
Congress is considering several bills that would impose additional site-neutral payment reductions for services provided in hospital outpatient departments (HOPDs). A description of these bills, AHA’s take on the proposals and the potential impact these proposals would have on Medicare…
The AHA strongly opposes policies to decrease hospital reimbursements by eliminating “facility fees,” which are the direct and indirect costs that allow a hospital to continue to provide services to patients and serve the needs of their community.
However, hospitals and health systems now face mounting and critical physician shortages — estimated to reach 86,000 physicians by 2036 — that will jeopardize access to care in communities across the nation.
Two trends in health insurance coverage are driving an increase in medical debt: inadequate health care coverage and high-deductible health plans that intentionally push more costs onto patients.
Policymakers and others have expressed growing concern about the trend of physician practices becoming affiliated with hospitals and health systems.