Uninsured discounts won't affect outlier payments

Discounts offered by hospitals to uninsured patients without regard to their financial needs do not affect the facility's outlier payments, the CMS said. Addressing a concern of many hospitals, the CMS said "when a hospital discounts charges to non-Medicare patients, such as uninsured patients, there is no effect on outlier payments under either Medicare's Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System" or Medicare's outpatient PPS. The guidance also said Medicare payments for new technology cases are not affected by such discount programs by hospitals. -- by Tony Fong