Medicare Payment Change Roils Hospitals

The Trump administration is shaking up how health systems are paid for outpatient care with a plan that could reduce Medicare hospital spending by nearly $11 billion over the next decade.

Why it matters: It's a big step forward for "site-neutral" payment policies that have been touted as a way to save taxpayers and patients money, but that hospitals say will lead to service cuts, especially in rural areas.

Driving the news: Medicare administrators last week finalized a proposal to reduce what the government pays hospitals to administer outpatient drugs, including chemotherapy, at off-campus sites.

• The move would equalize payment rates to hospitals and physician practices for the same services — an idea that Congress debated last year but didn't act on in the face of aggressive hospital lobbying.