The Trump administration finalized a hospital payment rule on Friday that retains proposed cuts to off-campus clinics and the 340B drug discount program.
The changes outlined in the Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) rule come despite both cuts being struck down in legal challenges and amid major pushback from providers.
Site neutral payments
The agency decided to move ahead with the two-year phase-in of the cuts to outpatient services for clinic visits furnished in an off-campus hospital outpatient setting. The goal is to bring payments to off-campus clinics in line with standalone physician offices.
“With the completion of the two-year phase-in, the cost sharing will be reduced to $9, saving beneficiaries an average of $14 each time they visit an off-campus department for a clinic visit in [calendar year] 2020,” CMS said in a fact sheet.
However, the two-year project that was supposed to start in 2019 has been halted because of a federal court ruling.
CMS decided to move forward with the cuts for off-campus clinics.
“The government has appeal rights, and is still evaluating the rulings and considering, at the time of this writing, whether to appeal the final judgment,” the agency said.
The American Hospital Association said that the site-neutral payment rule was misguided and that CMS ignored the recent court ruling.
“There are many real and crucial differences between hospital outpatient departments and the patient populations they serve and other sites of care,” said Tom Nickels, executive vice president of the AHA, in a statement.
340B cuts
CMS also finalized a proposed cut for the 340B program that cuts payments by 22.5% in 2020.
CMS has installed prior cuts in 2018 and 2019 to the program that requires drug companies to provide discounts to safety-net hospitals in exchange for getting their products covered on Medicaid.
However, a court ruling has struck down the cuts and CMS is currently appealing the decision.
CMS said that it hopes to conduct a 340B hospital survey to collect drug acquisition cost data for 2018 and 2019 and the survey will craft a remedy if the appeal doesn’t go their way.
“In the event the 340B hospital survey data are not used to devise a remedy, we intend to consider the public input to inform the steps we would take to propose a remedy for CYs 2018 and 2019 in the CY 2021 rulemaking,” the agency said.
Hospital groups commented that CMS should drop both the 340B and site neutral cuts because of the legal challenges.
Several groups weren’t happy that the cuts were still there.
“The agency also prolongs confusion and uncertainty for hospitals by maintaining unlawful policies it has been told to abandon in clear judicial directives,” said Beth Feldpush, senior vice president of policy and advocacy for America’s Essential Hospitals, in a statement Friday.
The hospital-backed group 340B Health added that CMS needs to stop this “unfunny version of ‘Groundhog Day’ and restore Medicare payments for 340B hospitals to their legal, statutory level.”
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