WASHINGTON – The Alliance for Site Neutral Payment Reform – a coalition of patient advocates, providers, payers, and employers – today sent a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), and Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA), urging the lawmakers to consider site neutral payment reforms as the House finalizes appropriations for the remainder of the 2024 fiscal year.
In its letter, the Alliance expressed strong support for Section 203 of the bipartisan Lower Costs, More Transparency Act (HR 5378), which requires site neutral payments for drug administration in off-campus hospital outpatient departments (HOPDs). Under current site-of-service payment differentials, patients and taxpayers pay two to three times more for drug administration services provided in an HOPD as compared to the physician office setting. According to the Congressional Budget Office, Section 203 would save $3.8 billion over 10 years and would immediately lower out-of-pocket costs for patients with cancer or autoimmune diseases.
The Alliance also encouraged Congress to pass legislation eliminating the grandfathering provisions under the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015 and extending site neutral payments for all clinically appropriate services at off-campus HOPDs.
Given projected cost savings, site neutral payment reform has garnered broad support, with 85% of voters supporting a limit to the cost of outpatient hospital care to the same price charged by community-based physicians.
“We strongly encourage you and your colleagues in Congress to embrace commonsense changes to our healthcare delivery system that will directly lower out-of-pocket costs for patients, provide savings and stability for the Medicare program and promote transparency in the healthcare marketplace,” the Alliance concluded.
To read the Alliance’s letter, click here.
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