WASHINGTON — Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) is pushing to reform Medicare payments to ensure the program pays the same amount for the same services, no matter where patients get care — and she might be willing to cut a deal with Republicans to do it.
Hassan is the lead Democrat in the Senate pushing to equalize payments between hospitals and outpatient facilities. During a STAT event on Thursday, she indicated that there might be room for negotiating a deal with her GOP colleagues on site-neutral legislation.
So-called “site-neutral” payment reforms have drawn broad support from think tanks on both sides of the aisle as a commonsense policy, and have started to gain momentum in Congress. A narrow version of the policy focused on payments for medicines passed the House of Representatives last year. However, it’s currently stalled because hospitals generally oppose it, and hospitals are a powerful lobby.
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