Now hospitals are a target

Axios - Washington's anti-hospital animus is gaining momentum with new calls to crack down on federal financing of hospitals coming from a think tank with close ties to the Trump administration.

It's becoming apparent on both sides of the aisle that addressing health care costs means addressing their largest driver: Hospitals.

The Paragon Health Institute, a conservative think tank led by first-term Trump health official Brian Blase, released a report today, "The Hospital Cost Crisis: How Government Policies Drive Consolidation, Undermine Competition, and Fuel Soaring Prices."

• It dismantles several of hospitals' most common arguments about their finances, concluding that "hospitals are not broadly financially distressed."
• It also disputes the industry's longtime claim that facilities lose money treating Medicare and Medicaid patients — an argument often used to justify charging commercially insured patients more for services.
• And it argues that federal policy, in many cases, overpays hospitals, gives them a competitive edge against other health industry players, and encourages consolidation while promoting inefficiencies.
• Paragon played a significant role in shaping the Medicaid overhaul that was included in last year's Republican budget bill, in a sign of its clout on Capitol Hill.

Details: The paper calls for greater scrutiny of "direct subsidy programs" like provider taxes, state-directed payments, and certain Medicare and Medicaid payments, saying such programs are "extensive, opaque and poorly targeted."  More