US to Require Specialty Hospital Disclosures

[Alastair]

US to Require Specialty Hospital Disclosures

WASHINGTON (Reuters) Aug 09 - U.S. Medicare officials said on Tuesday they would start requiring specialty hospitals to report information about physician investment and compensation to make sure they are not violating anti-kickback laws.

Critics say specialty hospitals, typically owned by groups of doctors, focus on highly profitable surgeries such as heart procedures and send sicker, harder-to-treat patients to general hospitals.

A voluntary government survey of specialty hospitals did not find evidence to support that criticism, but many hospitals failed to respond, Medicare officials said.

"Although the survey responses and other data that we received do not show, on their face, disproportionate returns or non-bona fide investments, we note that many hospitals did not respond to our request for physician investment and compensation information," the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) said in a summary of the report to Congress.

"We also note that some of the information we received warrants further inquiry into the propriety of some arrangements. Therefore, CMS has determined that it is necessary and appropriate to require ongoing reporting of physician investment activity," the summary said.

The hospitals that did not respond to the CMS survey will be the first ones required to report information, CMS Administrator Mark McClellan told reporters. All specialty hospitals also must tell patients if staff physicians have an investment in the hospital.

Hospitals that fail to report information promptly to CMS could face fines of up to $10,000 a day.

Congress had banned government reimbursement for specialty hospitals for 18 months. The ban was extended by CMS but expired with the release of the report on Tuesday, McClellan said.