Port Angeles, Wash.-based Olympic Medical Center will join the American Hospital Association's lawsuit against HHS over the recently announced cuts to Medicare reimbursement rates for off-site clinics, according to the Peninsula Daily News.
The medical center will be one four hospitals named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit. The medical center expects its reimbursements to be cut by about $1.7 million next year and to lose about $47 million over 10 years, as a result of the new rates.
The AHA asked the medical center to be part of the lawsuit, and Jennifer Burkhardt, the hospital's chief human resources officer, said there is a chance a judge could file an injunction against CMS and delay the cuts until the lawsuit is settled.
While the medical center will have to slow expansion and new hiring during the lawsuit, CEO Eric Lewis said he hopes the medical center will not drop services in response to the cuts.
"We have decided we really want to maintain all current services in Port Angeles and our Sequim campus," said Mr. Lewis. "Our patients still need us, just as much as before CMS decided to cut us."