Physician-owned practices with more than 25 doctors would be required to report information about their business structure, mergers and acquisitions annually to HHS under the proposed Promoting Access to Treatments and Increasing Extremely Needed Transparency Act.
HR 3561, also known as the PATIENT Act, was introduced May 22 and recommended to the full House following a 49-0 vote May 24 by the Committee on Energy and Commerce.
The bill would also impose billions of dollars a year in additional site-neutral payment reductions to services provided in off-campus hospital outpatient departments and modify hospital price transparency requirements.
Meanwhile, the American Hospital Association, along with eight other medical organizations, signed a letter opposing the aspects of the bill requiring physician-ownership reporting and reducing site-neutral payments. The AHA called the additional reporting requirements "overly burdensome and redundant to other reporting."