The American Hospital Association has sent a letter urging the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission to withdraw its draft recommendation to cut payment rates to hospitals participating in the 340B Drug Pricing Program.
In December, MedPAC considered a package of draft recommendations related to the hospital inpatient and outpatient prospective payment systems. The package included a recommendation to reduce the payment rates for 340B hospitals' Part B drugs by 10 percent of the average sales price and direct the program savings from reducing the payment rates to the Medicare-funded uncompensated care pool.
"This recommendation is outside of the scope of MedPAC's mission, lacks a clear purpose and penalizes certain hospitals for their ability to obtain discounts on the items and services they purchase," wrote Ashley Thompson, AHA senior vice president for public policy analysis and development, in a letter to MedPAC chairman Francis J. Crosson, MD.
The AHA urged MedPAC to withdraw the draft recommendation and, instead, to undertake an analysis of the trend of rapidly rising drug prices.
MedPAC is slated to vote next week on payment recommendations for fiscal year 2017.
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