The American Hospital Association urges the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to start requiring ambulatory surgery centers to report cost and quality data in a letter it sent to the CMS administrator this week.
The letter, written in response to CMS' proposed 2011 payment rule for hospital outpatient departments and ASCs, affirms the hospital industry's support for the establishment of a quality reporting program and a value-based purchasing program for ASCs — 2 recommendations the ASC industry also advocates.
The AHA also backs the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission's recommendation that ASCs be required to report cost data to the Department of Health and Human Services "to allow for future validation of the relative appropriateness of ASC payment weights and rates."
In its final comments related to ambulatory surgery, the AHA expresses concern over CMS' lack of details regarding the productivity adjustment it's supposed to begin applying to ASC payment rates in 2011, as mandated in the Affordable Care Act. "Before implementing these adjustments, which will cut billions of dollars from providers, CMS should fully disclose the methods and data sources used for this estimate for public comment," the organization suggests. "The AHA is further concerned that current economic conditions are distorting the factor used for the productivity adjustment, potentially leading to unintended consequences."
Irene Tsikitas
