The Medicare agency is sticking to its plan to pay the same rate for patient visits to doctors’ offices and off-campus, hospital-based clinics despite a lawsuit and lobbying efforts to reverse the policy.

The reason? More than $800 million in savings. Taxpayers would save an estimated $650 million in 2020 and Medicare patients would save another $160 million in out-of-pocket costs at outpatient facilities under a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services proposal.

The projected savings would come after a two-year phase-in of a policy change that saw Medicare reduce payments to hospital outpatient clinics in order to discourage…

Date: August 21, 2019

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Source: Bloomberg