CMS Issues Proposed Rule on Outpatient Payment Rates

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) today issued a proposed rule that would update payment policies and payment rates for services furnished to Medicare beneficiaries in hospital outpatient departments (HOPDs) and ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs) beginning Jan. 1, 2012. The proposed rule would continue to emphasize the importance of ensuring that beneficiaries receive high quality care without regard to the setting in which that care is provided.

The proposed rule also contains proposals that would strengthen the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing (HVBP) Program. The HVBP Program, which was required by the Affordable Care Act of 2010, will tie a portion of a hospital’s payment for inpatient stays under the Inpatient Prospective Payment System in fiscal year (FY) 2014 to its performance score on a set of quality measures. CMS issued a final rule establishing this program in April of this year.

CMS is also proposing changes to the Medicare Electronic Health Record Incentive Program that would allow eligible hospitals and critical access hospitals (CAHs) to report clinical quality measures for 2012 by participating in an electronic reporting pilot.

CMS projects that total payments to more than 4,000 hospitals – including general acute care hospitals, inpatient rehabilitation facilities, inpatient psychiatric facilities, long-term acute care hospitals, children’s hospitals, and cancer hospitals -- under the Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) in calendar year (CY) 2012 will be approximately $41.9 billion. CMS also projects that payments to approximately 5,000 Medicare-participating ASCs under the ASC Payment System will be approximately $3.61 billion.