A Washington, D.C., federal judge ruled Dec. 16 that the court cannot stop CMS from enacting site-neutral payments for off-campus providers in 2020.
In its final Outpatient Prospective Payment System rule for 2019, CMS made payments for clinic visits site-neutral by reducing the payment rate for evaluation and management services provided at off-campus provider-based departments.
In an attempt to overturn the rule, the American Hospital Association and dozens of hospitals sued CMS, arguing it exceeded its authority when it finalized the cuts in the rule.
U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer sided with the association and other hospitals in September, ruling CMS overstepped its authority when it expanded the site-neutral pay policy. But CMS moved forward with the site-neutral cuts in its 2020 OPPS rule, slashing off-campus department payments to a rate of 40 percent of the OPPS rate.
The association asked Ms. Collyer to uphold her September decision in an attempt to stop the 2020 payment cuts from taking effect Jan. 1, but ruled Dec. 16 that the court doesn't have jurisdiction to stop the continuation of the cuts next year.
"As a technical matter, the government correctly argues that the court's previous order was limited only to the 2019 final rule," the judge wrote.
The court loss for the association representing hospitals comes just days after CMS agreed to repay hospitals that were paid at the reduced rate this year.
"The AHA and other plaintiffs remain confident that the courts will find the 2020 cuts to be illegal, just as they found the 2019 cuts," Melinda Hatton, the AHA’s general counsel, wrote in a statement to Becker's Hospital Review.
Access the full ruling here.
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