• E-mail
• Print
• RSS

ASHA: Report supports need to eliminate moratorium

Ambulatory Surgery Reimbursement Update, March 1, 2005

The American Surgical Hospital Association (ASHA) has said that a report the group commissioned supports the belief that specialty hospitals are not a threat to general hospitals.

The report, issued by the Health Economics Consulting Group (HECG), is titled "Economics and Policy Analysis of Specialty Hospitals."

According to ASHA, the report justifies the association's position that the 18-month moratorium on physician referral of Medicare and Medicaid patients to specialized hospitals in which those physicians had an ownership interest needs to be lifted.

The report supports findings from governmental agencies such as the General Accounting Office (GAO) and the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), ASHA says.

"The information in the HECG report and the fact that it is substantiated by several governmental agencies including MedPAC and the GAO goes a long way in our efforts to eliminate the current moratorium on specialty hospitals," says Jim Grant, ASHA president and COO of National Surgical Hospitals, in a statement found on the ASHA Web site.

To view HECG's report, click here (Adobe Acrobat required).

To read more about ASHA's position on the moratorium, click here.

• E-mail to a Colleague
• Print
• RSS
• Archive