Senator Braun is one of multiple senators introducing a bill to help with Medicare.
Senators Mike Braun, Maggie Hassan, and John Kennedy are introducing their bipartisan bill to fix part of the Medicare billing structure that allows hospital systems to charge high hospital rates for care received at off-campus outpatient facilities.
This is due to Medicare’s billing structure, where even if care is received at an off-campus outpatient facility, it can be billed as though the care was provided at the main hospital campus with the higher hospital rate.
The billing practice is allowed to happen due to a provision in the 2015 Bipartisan Budget Act. This law established “site-neutral” payments under Medicare for services received at off-campus outpatient departments, but exempted most hospitals.
The Site-based Invoicing and Transparency Enhancement Act being introduced would include ending the 2015 Bipartisan Budget Act site neutral exceptions and prevent off-campus emergency departments from charging higher rates than on-campus emergency departments when standalone emergency facilities are located in close proximity to a hospital campus.
The bill will also use the savings from this fix to help fill the ongoing nursing shortage by creating a graduate nursing education program that would provide payments for training costs.
