government
Medicare to cut pay for unpaid hospital debts
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted July 16, 2012
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will reduce payments to hospitals that are used to offset unpaid Medicare patient deductibles and co-pays.
The Middle Class Tax Extension and Job Creation Act of 2012, signed into law in February, required these payments to be reduced by 35% during fiscal year 2013 and subsequent years. The cuts, which will save the government a projected $10.9 billion over 10 years, were implemented to help pay the cost of freezing Medicare pay rates to physicians in 2012.
The bad debt provisions were mandated by Congress and generally are self-implementing, CMS officials said. The policy was outlined in a proposed regulation published July 2 that will be finalized later in the year.The American Hospital Assn. has warned against cuts to bad debt pay. Reductions could result in the loss of health services and programs for all patients, the AHA said.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2012/07/16/gvbf0716.htm.
