Hospitals concerned about final pay rules
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced a final rule for hospital outpatient services, or the Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS). CMS estimates that the rule will increase payments for hospital outpatient departments by 1.7%, according to the National Association of Healthcare Access Management (NAHAM). The new rule was effective Jan. 1, 2014; however, CMS will delay implementation and final configuration of the new 29 comprehensive ambulatory payment classifications (APCs) until 2015, NAHAM says.
The rule will create 29 comprehensive APCs to handle payment for device-dependent services and will require direct supervision for a range of outpatient services in critical access hospitals (CAHs).
This rule combines five payment codes into a single payment code that covers all outpatient clinic visits. The outpatient clinic visits code will include drugs, biologicals, and radiopharmaceuticals used in a diagnostic test or surgical procedure, lab services, and device removal procedures. The American Hospital Association believes that the payments will be well below the cost of treatment for complex patients, according to NAHAM.
The Access to Medical Imaging Coalition is concerned that the rule will dramatically reduce the outpatient payments to hospitals for CT scans and MRI services, NAHAM says. The group is concerned because the rule will establish similar reimbursement rates for a CT scan and X-ray image of the same body part, even though a CT scan requires more expensive equipment and is more expensive to administer.
