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Forty-eight senators Friday urged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to reconsider its proposal to expand certain site-neutral payment policies to grandfathered off-campus hospital provider-based departments in calendar year 2019. The proposed cuts to hospital outpatient department evaluation and management services and future services from new clinical families “ignore the grandfathered status of these facilities” and “threaten seniors’ access to care in their own communities,” the senators , noting that the impacted facilities “include those that provide care to some of the most vulnerable patient populations.” In passing Section 603 of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, "Congress was clear in its intention to grandfather existing facilities, so that only new off-campus sites would have payments reduced,” the letter states. “…Therefore, we ask that CMS ensure these facilities be treated as Congress intended and protected from the proposed cuts.” The letter was spearheaded by Sens. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.