HHS asks Supreme Court for more time in filing response to site neutral payment review

The Section of Well being and Human Companies has asked the Supreme Courtroom for an extension to file a reaction to the American Healthcare facility Association’s ask for for a judicial evaluate relating to web-site neutral payments.

The federal government reaction was because of by March fifteen, but on March 3 Norris Cochran, acting Secretary of Well being and Human Service, asked for an extension right until April fourteen, according to court paperwork.

In February, the Supreme Courtroom acknowledged the AHA’s ask for for judicial evaluate of an appeals court decision siding with HHS’s decision to lower payments to off-campus facilities. 

WHY THIS Matters

At stake for hospitals was the decline of an estimated $800 million in revenue in 2020, at a time when well being systems ended up and continue on to encounter economical challenges because of to the COVID-19 pandemic.

THE Greater Trend

The Bipartisan Funds Act in 2015 authorized CMS to impose web-site-neutral payments but grandfathered present clinic outpatient facilities. 

In November 2019, the Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Companies made the decision to move forward with a two-yr phase-in of web-site-neutral payments despite a decision in the district court previously in the yr siding with hospitals in their fight to hold the larger outpatient payments for off-campus facilities.

HHS appealed the decision, but in December 2019, the Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Companies said it would repay hospitals for cuts manufactured in web-site-neutral payments by mechanically reprocessing calendar yr 2019 claims for clinic outpatient products and services supplied in off-campus service provider-centered departments that experienced been grandfathered below the Bipartisan Funds Act of 2015. The amount of money was estimated at $380 million for 2019.

In July 2020, the U.S. Courtroom of Appeals in the District of Columbia said HHS experienced the authority to lower the payments. The court decision intended CMS would now be spending formerly grandfathered off-campus outpatient departments operate by hospitals at the same lower charge as medical professional clinics.

Hospitals asked the Supreme Courtroom for a judicial evaluate, trying to find to have the ruling overturned.

The major distinction concerning Medicare payments to clinic outpatient facilities and independent places of work has encouraged hospitals and well being systems to obtain medical professional procedures, but a study has pointed out that excellent investigate about this has been lacking up to now.

Twitter: @SusanJMorse
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