Elevance makes hospitals report where care actually happened

Elevance will validate reported locations against hospital addresses and pay based on where care was actually delivered, a policy Axios first reported Tuesday, rolling out across 2026 and 2027. The target is off-campus facilities billed at in-hospital rates, where a 2023 Blue Cross Blue Shield Association analysis put Medicare's three-year overpayment for four services at $2.7 billion. Congress's own fix, unique billing identifiers for off-campus sites, takes effect in 2028.