The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission plans to recommend that Congress enact a 0.5% increase in ambulatory surgery center payment rates in 2012. The proposed update would be conditioned upon ASCs submitting quality and cost data to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
MedPAC held meetings yesterday in Washington to assess the adequacy of Medicare payments for services rendered by ASCs, hospital inpatient and outpatient departments and other healthcare providers. The advisory panel typically submits its recommendations in a formal report to Congress in March.
The Outpatient Ophthalmic Surgery Society says the expected 0.5% update recommendation is "likely to have minimal impact on the ultimate rates assigned to our centers," since Congress "rarely pays heed to MedPAC's counsel on these updates." Congress has also repeatedly rejected the panel's call for ASC cost reporting.
Last year, MedPAC recommended a 0.6% update to ASC payment rates in 2011, but CMS ended up enacting a 0.2% increase, based on an annual inflationary update of 1.5% and the productivity adjustment of -1.3%.
Irene Tsikitas
