KFF Health News April 26, 2019
Eric Lewis’ plans for expansion have derailed.
As chief executive officer of Olympic Medical Center, he oversees efforts to provide care to roughly 75,000 people in Clallam County, in the isolated, rural northwestern corner of Washington state.
Last year, Lewis planned to build a primary care clinic in Sequim, a town about 17 miles from the medical center’s main campus in Port Angeles.
But those plans were put aside, Lewis said, because of a change in federal reimbursements this year. Medicare has opted to pay hospitals with outpatient facilities that are “off campus” a lower rate, equivalent to what it pays independent doctors for clinic visits.
Over the past decade, hospitals have been rapidly building outpatient clinics or purchasing existing...