TAX ON AMBULATORY SURGERY CENTERS
(H.4639, SECTION 77)
The MMS opposes the House bill’s intent to tax Ambulatory
Surgery Centers (ASCs) at 8.75% of charges. Specifically, Section 77 of H.4639 would impose the
following tax on ASCs, urgent care centers, limited service clinics and a new
category of licensed providers called office based surgical centers:
"Each assessed specialty
clinic shall, in each fiscal year, pay to the executive office an amount equal
to 8.75 per cent of the total dollar amount of its assessed charges for
commercial payers. Each assessed specialty clinic shall be exempt from
contributing any percentage of the total dollar amount for its assessed charges
for public payers."
The MMS opposes the ASC tax for the following reasons:
• The proposed tax on ASCs is
excessive, to the point that its unintended consequences would actually
increase healthcare costs in the Commonwealth.
If passed, the 8.75% tax on assessed charges will make Massachusetts the
state with the highest ASC provider tax in the nation. All other states that have a tax on ASCs base
the rate on revenue received, not charges.
• ASCs offer patients increased access
to high quality outpatient surgical and diagnostic services at costs less than
those at hospital outpatient departments.
ASC prices are about half of hospital outpatient prices for the same
procedures. For Medicare, prices double when moved to hospital-based offices.
Patients benefit from reduced costs at ASCs through lower deductible and
coinsurance payments. High value care
offered at ASCs benefits insurers and employers as well, as they are struggling
to contain health care costs for beneficiaries.
• Imposition of the 8.75% tax will
force many freestanding ASCs to cut back on investment in replacement technology,
reduce the range of services offered, or even resort to selling their
facilities to hospitals, thereby decreasing access to care, increasing costs to
patients and the healthcare system.
