Vernaglia Quoted on Implications of Final Site-Neutrality Pay Rule

Partner Larry Vernaglia was quoted in a Modern Healthcare article, “Site-Neutral Pay Rule Leaves Hospital-Owned Outpatient Facilities with Uncertain Future,” on November 3, 2016. The article discussed the details of the final site-neutrality pay rule, including that many hospital off-campus facilities will no longer be paid the same as hospital-based outpatient departments.

Vernaglia noted that hospitals still have to cover the costs of running off-site facilities some way, which means they’ll either subsidize the programs within the health system budget or they’ll turn to commercial insurers for more money. He continued to say that payers would fight that too, and said, “This is a cage fight between payers and providers. Payers don’t want to pay anymore, and providers want their overheads covered.”