My Turn

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• Announced ASC rate increases in a timely fashion. This year, the announcement of the annual ASC rate increase occurred in time for many, if not most, carriers to implement the increase by Oct. 1, 2002, as provided in the law. Some might question a ?B' grade for a routine task that isn't completed on time. This is a valid point, but I believe that the agency's improvement with the timeliness of its updates in each of the last two years deserves recognition. I hope that next year it can be announced early enough that all carriers will start paying the new rates on their effective date.
• Updated reimbursable procedures. Despite a mandate to update the list of procedures for which Medicare reimburses ASCs every two years, CMS has not updated this list since 1995. But it now appears likely that this update will occur sometime in 2003. FASA is hopeful that CMS will begin working on the next update as soon as the current update is published.
• Addressed ASC Medicare rates. Finally, although CMS has not succeeded in regular recalculation of the costs of providing ASC services as mandated in the law, it recognizes its failures and is looking for alternative mechanisms for establishing ASC rates. FASA is delighted to see an evaluation of the mechanism used for setting ASC rates and the reasonableness of the resulting rates. Whether the best approach will be implementing a new system or identifying a way to implement the existing system on a timely and accurate basis remains to be seen.

Kathy Bryant (kbryant@fasa.org) is the executive director of the Federated Ambulatory Surgery Association.