Medicare’s proposal to increase payments for outpatient services by 2.6 percent in FY 2025 is not enough, the Alliance of Safety-Net Hospitals has told the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in a letter responding to the agency’s proposed changes in its Medicare outpatient prospective payment system.

The proposed Medicare outpatient payment increase, ASH noted, fails to keep pace with the rising cost of providing outpatient care – something that

… is especially vital for community safety-net hospitals because they approach their work with far fewer resources than the typical American hospital and are far more dependent on public payers than those other hospitals, which serve far larger numbers of commercially insured patients for whom they are much better reimbursed.

ASH also asked CMS to withdraw all of the additions and changes in Medicare Conditions of Participation the agency proposed for obstetrical services, writing that

… ASH does not believe the proposed revised or new CoPs will enhance access to OB services or move the health care industry closer to health equity in maternal care…

Instead, ASH explained that

For community safety-net hospitals and many others, improving access to and the quality of OB care is a matter of resources, not regulation, and we urge CMS to invest greater resources in this care, not more regulation.

Finally, ASH lauded CMS for adopting through regulation a requirement making Medicaid and CHIP coverage continuously available to children under the age of 19 regardless of changes in eligibility such as the failure to pay program premiums.

Learn more about ASH’s response to proposed changes in Medicare outpatient payments for FY 2025 from this ASH letter to CMS.