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CMS Keeps Original Payment Policy for Multi-Campus Hospitals

 |  By jsimmons@healthleadersmedia.com  
   July 29, 2010

Multi-campus hospitals should not anticipate additional incentive payments beyond what would be paid for one hospital under the "meaningful use" provisions unveiled earlier this month. That was the testimony of a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services executive before a House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee during a hearing on the HITECH Act Tuesday.

Tony Trenkle, director of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' Office of eHealth Standards and Services, told the House panel that CMS had received many comments and requests to recognize each campus of a multi-campus hospital in regard to the incentive payments made for electronic health record adoption. These are hospitals that use the same CMS certification number.

"We understand that this issue is of importance to members of Congress, the hospitals, and the public. However, from the agency's perspective, we believe it's important to treat hospitals consistently," Trenkle said.

"The decision to deviate from long-standing hospital policy in this particular instance—without clear statutory direction to do so—would have made CMS vulnerable to legal challenges."

He said that when CMS looked at the legislative language of the stimulus legislation which authorized the EHR incentive initiative. "We came to the conclusion in our final rule that we should define hospitals consistently for all policy purposes, including the Medicaid & Medicare EHR incentive payments."

This decision could seriously impact a number of hospitals, several congressman on the panel told Trenkle. Rep. Zack Space (D-Ohio) said that in his district, for instance, Genesis Healthcare in Zanesville, OH, stands to lose $2 million in incentive payments based on the current rule.

"As you might understand, we're a little frustrated by that rule," Space said. He asked if decisions like this would ultimately make it more difficult for hospitals, such as Genesis, to adopt the technology that the law is designed to promote."

Trankle said that CMS based its payment decision on existing policy. "The provider number is based on how the hospitals choose to organize themselves for payment under Medicare program. So, what we did here—without clear statute intent—was to be consistent with payment policies that we have adopted for other programs."

Trenkle acknowledged that CMS had met with interested stakeholders, including the two largest hospital associations, the American Hospital Association and the Federation of American Hospitals, to hear their concerns. However, he said, CMS would not reconsider its decision at the current time.

Janice Simmons is a senior editor and Washington, DC, correspondent for HealthLeaders Media Online. She can be reached at jsimmons@healthleadersmedia.com.

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