The American Hospital Association ("AHA") has asked Congress to renew several Medicare reimbursement policies that either have expired or will soon expire.  According to the AHA, the uncertainty involved in these programs makes it difficult for hospitals to plan for community and patient needs.

The AHA's June 13 letter to members of Congress, available here, urged lawmakers to extend reimbursement provisions covering:
• Payments for the technical component of certain physician pathology services
• Ambulance add-on payments
• The outpatient hold-harmless provision for rural hospitals and sole community hospitals
• Medicare cost payments for clinical diagnostic laboratory tests furnished in certain rural areas
• Section 508 hospital wage index reclassifications
• The Medicare-dependent hospital program
• The enhanced low-volume adjustment for inpatient prospective payment system hospitals

While Congress has extended these Medicare payment provisions in the past, House Republicans have suggested that some of these provisions were meant to provide discrete payment boosts, while others are no longer needed.  AHA stated that it supports legislation (S. 1680, S. 2620) introduced in the Senate to extend the programs.  Selina Spinos