July 14, 2008
CMS has announced its proposed policy and payment changes for hospital outpatient departments and ambulatory surgery centers for calendar year 2009. The agency projects that total payments for Medicare outpatient services will increase to $28.7 billion for 2009, up from $26.9 billion in 2008, while payments for Medicare services provided by ambulatory surgery centers will grow to $3.9 billion, compared with $3.5 billion in 2008.
Among the significant changes that CMS is proposing for outpatient departments are a two percent reduction in the annual payment update for hospitals that do not report their performance on specific quality measures and the addition of five imaging composite APC’s that would provide a single APC payment when two or more imaging procedures using the same imaging modality were provided in a single session. CMS also has decided to retain current policies with respect to a number of different imaging-related issues that impact imaging guidance, Intravascular Ultrasound and ICE, and payments for Radiopharmaceuticals and contrast agents.
CMS will accept comments on the proposed rule until September 2, 2008, and will respond to comments in a final rule to be issued by November 1, 2008.
To read a press release on the proposal, click here.
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