Hospital groups urge Congress to oppose additional cuts

The AHA and nine other national hospital groups today urged Congress to oppose any additional Medicare and Medicaid cuts to payments for hospital services to offset the cost of resolving the Sustainable Growth Rate for Medicare physician payment. “The hospital community places great value in our relationship with physicians and in the need for a proper, permanent fix to the SGR…However, it is unsustainable and unacceptable for hospitals to take on any further financial burden in order for this to be accomplished,” the hospital groups told members of the Senate Finance Committee, House Ways & Means and Energy & Commerce committees, and Senate and House Budget committees. The annual action of “patching” the SGR has in part contributed to nearly $122 billion in reductions imposed on hospitals since 2010, the letter notes. “These cuts do not come without consequences. According to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, hospitals are expected to have a Medicare margin of -9 percent in fiscal year 2015, which would be the lowest in history.” In addition to AHA, signers of the letter include America’s Essential Hospitals, Association of American Medical Colleges, Catholic Health Association of the United States, Children’s Hospital Association, Federation of American Hospitals, National Association of Psychiatric Health Systems, Premier healthcare alliance, and VHA Inc.