The American Hospital Association on Jan. 10 urged the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission to incorporate the negative impact of sequestration into its fiscal year 2015 payment recommendations and margin projections for hospitals and other health care providers to avoid a misleading and inaccurate picture of hospitals’ financial status. “MedPAC’s position that sequestration is ‘temporary’ is misguided – sequestration is current law and applies to Medicare payments for the next decade,” wrote Linda Fishman, AHA senior vice president for public policy analysis and development.
The letter urges the commission to increase its recommended update factor for inpatient and outpatient hospital payment rates to at least 5% to adequately consider the impact of current law and all standing MedPAC recommendations. It also urges MedPAC to support a positive update recommendation for long-term care hospitals and inpatient rehabilitation facilities, and calls MedPAC’s current draft recommendation on LTCH payment reform “unnecessary” in light of recent congressional changes; and to look beyond the CARE Tool and B-Tool to other viable options that would achieve consistent measurement and reporting across post-acute settings.
MedPAC is expected to vote on 2015 payment recommendations later this week.
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