The American Hospital Associaton on Nov. 29 urged Congress to extend several expiring health programs and provisions important to hospitals and the patients they serve. In a letter, AHA asked leaders of the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means committees to support legislation to extend: payments for the technical component of certain physician pathology services; ambulance add-on services; the outpatient hold-harmless provision for rural hospitals and Sole Community Hospitals; Medicare cost payments for clinical diagnostic laboratory tests furnished in certain rural areas; Section 508 hospital wage index reclassifications; and the sunset for Critical Access Hospitals under the HUD 242 hospital mortgage insurance program.
“In addition, several critical programs, such as the Medicare-dependent hospital program and the enhanced low-volume adjustment for prospective payment system hospitals, are scheduled to expire next calendar year,” AHA said. “Your support for extending these programs and provisions is vital.”
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