New Senate deal would ban some facility fees, reform hospital contracting
A bipartisan deal to fund primary care programs led by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) includes policies to restrain hospital costs.
WASHINGTON — A new, bipartisan deal in the Senate to fund primary care programs also includes new policies to restrain hospital costs, including a ban on some facility fees and restrictions on anticompetitive contracting practices.
The package, negotiated between Senate health committee Chair Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Sen. Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), is urgent because it includes funding for community health centers that is set to expire at the end of the month. The package would provide the health centers with three years of funding, compared with a House package that proposed two years.
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