Site neutrality refers to the policy that requires reimbursement for medical services be the same regardless of the setting where the patient is treated.
While site neutrality may seem like a system that is fair, the policy would have a disproportionate negative impact on specialties and would devastate smaller, rural hospitals and labs.
Site-neutral policy overlooks key differences in medical settings, such as operational costs, regulatory burdens, and the population demographics served by certain facilities. These differences make standardization of reimbursement challenging and may result in unintended consequences.
ASE recommends that Congress should explore other policies that will not harm rural clinicians, communities, and the practice of echocardiography. Site neutral policy should not be implemented as a way to solve issues of health equity and cost, as it could have an adverse impact on the field of echocardiography and lead to rural hospital closures which would negatively affect high-need communities.