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.