Last month, the Trump Administration proposed major changes to how Medicare pays for hospital care and physician services in the Outpatient Prospective Payment System and Medicare Physician Fee Schedule. These proposed rules take important steps forward in paying better for primary care and stopping payment distortions that drive hospital consolidation. At the same time, these rules roll back important requirements that drive health equity improvements.
Join Families USA’s annual webinar on August 27, where we will outline these major administrative proposals and opportunities to join federal comment letters.
Enact site neutral payments for drug administration services, to ensure consumers pay the same price for the same service for physician administered drugs in more outpatient care settings, reining in a key driver of health care consolidation and high hospital prices.
Make critical changes to the physician fee schedule that increases payments for primary care and behavioral health services which will strengthen the health care workforce and ensure families have access to a usual source of high-quality primary care.
Repeal critical quality measures that would have held hospitals accountable for health equity and the social drivers of health, undermining our ability to drive high value health care and improve health outcomes.
Weaken price transparency rules that undermine the ability for people to know the price of health care before they receive medical services. They would do this by allowing hospitals to post algorithms and price estimates, instead of actual prices in dollars and cents.
Medicare payment sets the benchmark for how most other health care is paid for and delivered. Therefore, it is critical a powerful range of organizations representing consumers, families, workers, and employers come together to be a counterweight to industry interests and ensure that the Administration prioritizes pro-consumer reforms in this year's Medicare payment rules. These federal comments are critical to driving affordable and high-quality health care and improved health for all across the health care system.
Join us in the fight by taking the following actions:
In addition to administrative advocacy, we also need to call on Congress to prioritize affordability and lower health care costs for our nation's families, including by enacting pro-consumer reforms that take on corporate greed and address the fundamental drivers of unaffordable health care.
Sign on to our letter to Congressional leadership demanding action on bipartisan policies that improve transparency, address rising industry consolidation and anticompetitive behaviors, and lower health care costs, which we’ll deliver as Congress returns from August recess. You can read the letter here, and to sign on, please fill out this form by COB Thursday, August 28.
Share your story on high hospital bills and health care pricing abuses to [email protected].
Thank you, and please reach out if you have any questions or would like to collaborate more closely on carrying out these actions.
Mike Persley Strategic Partnerships Campaign Manager Families USA
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