HCFA delays comments on hospital, ASC proposals

The Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) has delayed the comment period for proposed regulations on the hospital outpatient prospective payment schedule and the ambulatory surgical center payment methodology and list of Medicare-covered procedures. The deadline is now June 30th for these proposals, which would implement ambulatory payment classifications (APCs) for both settings.

Implementation is currently scheduled for no earlier than mid-year 2000, HCFA officials say. (For the most recent information on the proposals, see Same-Day Surgery, January 1999, p. 11; November 1998, p. 137; and August 1998, p. 101.)