The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has published a final rule updating payment policies and rates for hospital outpatient departments (OPPS) and ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs) in CY10.
Most hospitals will receive an inflation update of 2.1 percent in their payment rates for Medicare outpatient services. Under the Hospital Outpatient Department Quality Data Reporting Program, hospitals that did not participate in the program or did not successfully report the quality measures will receive an update equal to the annual inflation update factor minus 2.0 percentage points for a net update of 0.1 percent.
ASCs will receive a 1.2 percent inflation update.
CMS projects that aggregate Medicare payments to hospitals and community mental health centers in CY10 will be approximately $32.2 billion, while aggregate Medicare payments to ASCs will total $3.4 billion.
The final rule will appear in the Nov. 20 Federal Register. Comments are due by Dec. 29. CMS will respond to comments in the CY11 OPPS/ASC final rule.
