The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed rule that will revise the requirements that ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs) must meet in order to bill Medicare for services furnished to beneficiaries.

This proposed rule would update the existing ASC Conditions for Coverage (CfC) to reflect contemporary standards of practice in the ASC community, as well as recommendations from the HHS Inspector General. The new requirements will promote and protect patient access to quality services in ASCs.

ASCs are typically free-standing facilities that perform outpatient surgery. To participate in the Medicare program, they must meet Medicare's conditions for coverage.
The most commonly performed ASC procedures currently include cataract removal and lens replacement, other eye procedures, and colonoscopy. However, the specific types of procedures that will be covered when performed in an ASC, and the payment rates that will apply, have been dramatically changed as a result of a final ASC payment methodology rule that was issued by CMS on July 16, 2007.

That final rule is intended among other things, to provide ASC payment for additional surgical procedures and create a rational relationship between payments for services furnished in ASCs and the same services when performed in either a hospital outpatient department or a physician's office. As a result of the added procedures to be paid in ASCs and the revised ASC payment rates for existing ASC services, there may be a significant change in the mix of services performed in ASCs and in the alternate settings.

CMS expects that some of the new ASC procedures currently performed in the hospital outpatient department and the physician's office will move to the ASC setting, and that there will also be migration of existing ASC procedures both into and out of ASCs as a result of the revised ASC payment system.

On July 16, 2007, CMS also issued a proposed rule setting payment rates, and adding procedures to the ASC-covered list, effective for ASC services performed on or after January 1, 2008. The comment period on the proposed payment rates rule closes on September 14, and a final rule will be issued on or before November 1, 2007.

Today's proposed rule changes include:
* A more comprehensive quality assessment and performance improvement condition (QAPI) that enables ASCs to take tailored proactive steps to ensure quality care;
* Requiring the ASC's governing body to be responsible for the oversight and accountability for the updated QAPI program;

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