38 hospitals sue HHS over site-neutral payment rule

A month and a half after several hospital advocacy groups joined together to sue the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services over it's finalized site-neutral payment policy, 38 hospitals have followed, filing suit against HHS Secretary Alex Azar for a policy they say will deprive hospitals of hundreds of millions of dollars and could compel them to cut patient services due to loss of reimbursement. The complaint argues that medical services provided in hospital outpatient departments are more "resource-intensive"--and therefore more costly--than those performed in an independent physician's office. It also sharply criticized Secretary Azar, saying he "has blatantly disregarded a specific and unambiguous statutory directive, acted well beyond his authority and nullified that statutory exemption" that would have had hospital outpatient centers reimbursed for services at the higher grandfathered rate previously legislated.