Exclusive: New coalition focuses on site-neutral payments

An ideologically diverse group of think tanks and individual policy experts are launching a coalition Tuesday that will push for site-neutral payments in Medicare and hospital transparency legislation.

Why it matters: It's not every day you see groups like Americans for Prosperity and experts from the Brookings Institution working together — and it's another step showing that site-neutral payment reform and physician-owned hospital legislation could have momentum this Congress.

Details: The coalition — which doesn't have a name yet — is sending a letter to the House Energy and Commerce and the Education and Workforce committees urging them to "advance reforms that promote site-neutral payments in Medicare and site of service billing transparency in commercial health insurance."

• The group says the changes would be "an important step to lowering the cost of health care."
• The coalition includes the Koch-led Americans for Prosperity, the center-left Progressive Policy Institute and high-profile health policy scholars like Brookings Institution's Loren Adler and the American Enterprise Institute's Brian Miller. (You can see the full list in the letter.)

What we're watching: Legislation on site-neutral payments and physician-owned hospitals, such as the Patient Access to Higher Quality Healthcare Act, are going to be discussed during Wednesday's Energy and Commerce health transparency hearing.

• As Axios reported last week, there were some objections from Democrats on the nature of some of the bills, which means the hearing may not end up being bipartisan after all.
• Rep. Victoria Spartz also re-introduced several hospital transparency bills last week, some of which focus on these topics.