On August 4, 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed policies that are consistent with the directives in President Donald Trump’s Executive Order “Protecting and Improving Medicare for Our Nation’s Seniors,” that aims to increase choice, lower patients’ out-of-pocket costs, empower patients and protect taxpayer dollars.
These proposed changes would build on existing efforts to increase patient choice by making Medicare payment available for more services in different sites of service and adopting policy changes under the Medicare Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) and Ambulatory Surgical Center (ASC) Payment System.
The CY 2021 OPPS/ASC Payment System proposed rule would further advance the agency’s commitment to strengthening Medicare and reducing provider burden so that hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers can operate with increased flexibility, and patients are better equipped to be active health care consumers.
The proposed rule does not suggest the adoption of any new measures for the ASC Quality Reporting Program nor does it propose the removal of existing measures for the CY 2023 payment determination.
Some of the items in the proposed rule include:
- an expansion of the number of procedures that Medicare would pay for when performed in an ASC.
- continued use of the hospital market basket to update ASC payments through CY 2023.
- an increase in the number of procedures that Medicare would pay for in the HOPD by eliminating the inpatient-only list completely by 2024.
For more information, visit https://go.cms.gov/3ij4vCb.
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