The American Hospital Association (AHA) “shared concerns” with CMS regarding the calendar year 2027 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System and Ambulatory Surgical Center Payment System proposed rule.
AHA wrote that the proposed net payment update of 2.4% is “not adequate given the financial challenges hospitals and health systems face.”
In its letter to CMS, AHA wrote that it is “particularly concerned with the large proposed productivity cut of 0.8 percentage points,” and urged CMS to “work with Congress to reduce the magnitude of it for CY 2027 or eliminate the adjustment altogether. Moreover, we are concerned about other proposals that would negatively impact beneficiary access to hospital-level care and new technologies, while also greatly increasing regulatory burden.”
The AHA also opposed a proposal to “reduce payment for imaging without contrast services furnished by off-campus excepted outpatient departments,” and commented on “other proposals in the rule regarding the inpatient-only list, a proposed expansion of prior authorization to apply to additional botulinum toxin injection codes, a proposed expansion of the ASC covered procedures list, and the requirement for hospitals to obtain a separate national provider identifier for each of their off-campus outpatient departments.”
Read AHA’s full letter here.
