Dec 13, 2019

Hospitals win back $800 million from Medicare

Illustration of a statue of Justice wearing a doctor's coat and a stethoscope

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

The Trump administration is backtracking on a major policy that cut payments to hospitals while the policy is stuck in the courts.

The big picture: The hospital industry is getting back almost $800 million, and the Trump administration has failed to implement another regulation — one that most experts support, too.

Details: Any hospital that was paid a lower amount for a routine clinic visit in 2019 will automatically be paid the difference from the older, higher amount, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said in a bulletin on Thursday.

  • CMS wanted to create a level playing field, arguing that hospitals should not be paid more for these standard checkups when they could be done for far less in an independent doctor's office.
  • Hospitals naturally hated the idea, took the government to court, won, and are now fighting to eliminate the policy from future years.
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