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Appeals court rules HHS has authority to implement site-neutral payments, dealing blow to hospitals
A federal appeals court ruled the Department of Health and Human Services has the authority to cut Medicare payments to off-campus clinics to bring them in line with independent physician practices, reversing a lower court’s decision.
The ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia delivered Friday strikes a major blow to the hospital industry which has been fighting HHS over the controversial rule.
The American Hospital Association (AHA) led a lawsuit against HHS arguing it did not have the statutory authority to cut payments to the off-campus, provider-based departments. HHS made the cuts in its annual hospital payments rule and the hospitals argued they were unlawful because the cuts were not budget-neutral, a requirement of the payment rule.
But the appeals court agreed with HHS that it had the authority to make the change in the payment rule because of how the law is structured.
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Cartoon – Coronavirus Sign of the Times
U.S. blows past coronavirus record with more than 70,000 new cases in one day
Record numbers of covid-19 fatalities were reported in Florida, Texas and South Carolina on Thursday, and officials throughout the Sun Belt are worried that hospitals could soon reach a breaking point.
Here are some significant developments:
- Masks are now mandatory in more than half of U.S. states — with the governors of Arkansas and Colorado the latest to issue face-covering orders. Major retailers phased in new mask policies, and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R), chairman of the National Governors Association, said that masks should be mandated in states across the country.
- Larry Fink, the chief executive of investment firm BlackRock, said that if states moving forward with reopening plans required masks, the economy would recover much sooner.
- Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (D) blasted Georgia’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp (R), for suing to stop block her city’s mask ordinance, accusing him of “putting politics over people.”
- An unpublished report from the White House Coronavirus Task Force suggests that nearly 20 hard-hit states should enact tougher public health measures.
- Real-time coronavirus tracking data temporarily disappeared from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website, sparking an outcry.
- President Trump faces rising disapproval and widespread distrust on coronavirus, according to a new Post-ABC poll.
- India on Friday surpassed 1 million confirmed coronavirus cases, becoming the third country to cross that threshold, behind the United States and Brazil..
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Florida And Texas Both Set Coronavirus Death Records Thursday
TOPLINE
Coronavirus deaths are again on the rise in the U.S., with all three of the nation’s largest states setting new highs for daily death tolls Thursday following weeks of record increases in new cases and hospitalizations, even as President Donald Trump and other conservatives have touted death statistics as a sign the U.S. is handling the pandemic well.
KEY FACTS
California, Texas and Florida all reported new record daily highs for deaths Thursday.
California reported 149 deaths, while Florida reported 120 and Texas set a new record for the third-straight day, with 105.
Deaths are rising rapidly in Texas, with the 105 deaths breaking Wednesday’s record of 98, which shattered the record of 60 that was set on Tuesday.
Coronavirus deaths in the U.S. declined from early May through mid-June, but have picked up recently, and are now pacing at just under 1,000 per day.
The rise is being driven by record new death tolls in the nation’s largest states—the same states that have in large part contributed to the U.S.’s record rise in new cases recently.
Experts have said that deaths lag behind increases in cases and hospitalizations, with former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb saying in an interview Sunday that “the total number of deaths is going to start going up again.”
KEY BACKGROUND
Coronavirus deaths reached a peak nationally in April through early May with over 2,000 a day on many days, largely driven by the severe outbreak in New York. Now the pandemic has eased in the Northeast while states in the South and West are the new national epicenters for coronavirus.
CHIEF CRITICS
Trump and Republican politicians had used the decline in deaths and a decrease in mortality rates to argue that the U.S. response to coronavirus has worked. However, there has also been a massive increase in testing, meaning that many less severe cases are now being identified.
BIG NUMBER
4.3%. According to Johns Hopkins University, that’s what the current mortality rate is among confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S., a number that’s continually dropped as testing has increased. However, health experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci said early on in the pandemic that they believe the actual mortality rate is around 1%, which is still at least 10 times the lethality of the seasonal flu. And Gottlieb noted that even if the reported death rate continues to drop, if there is an increase in infections, the amount of deaths will ultimately rise, as well.
CRITICAL QUOTE
“It’s a false narrative to take comfort in a lower rate of death,” Fauci said on Tuesday, adding “There’s so many other things that are very dangerous and bad about this virus, don’t get yourself into false complacency.”
619-bed California hospital to join Cedars-Sinai
Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, Calif., has entered into a definitive agreement to join Los Angeles-based Cedars-Sinai Health System, roughly four months after the organizations signed a letter of intent to explore an affiliation.
The agreement calls for investments in 619-bed Huntington Hospital’s information technology, ambulatory services and physician development. Under the agreement, Huntington Hospital would be governed by a local board and its philanthropy and volunteer support would be locally controlled, the organizations said.
“On behalf of everyone at Huntington Hospital, we are all very pleased to have reached this important milestone,” said Jaynie Studenmund, chair of the Huntington Hospital board of directors, in a news release. “We pledge to work cooperatively with all the relevant parties and believe that this proposed affiliation is in the best interest of all of our stakeholders and the greater San Gabriel Valley community.”
The definitive agreement will now be submitted for regulatory review and approval. The review process is expected to take several months.
