Fierce Healthcare November 7, 2019
Medicare’s payment policy is a major driver of physicians linking up with hospitals, a trend that is raising costs for beneficiaries, new data show.
The data from the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission examined the rate of consolidation and the reasons behind it. The findings released during MedPAC’s meeting Thursday will be part of a report that was requested by Congress in 2018 on physician and hospital consolidation.
Since 2012, billing under Medicare has shifted from physician offices to hospital outpatient clinics. For instance, physician offices saw a 16% decline in service volume of chemotherapy administration from 2012 to 2018. But hospital outpatient departments saw an increase of 52%, according to MedPAC’s analysis of Medicare claims.
Physicians also saw a 2%...
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