As expected, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission has recommended a 0.5% increase in payments to ambulatory surgery centers and a 1% increase in payments for hospital outpatient services in 2012 in its annual report to Congress.
The recommended 0.5% bump for ASC services comes with a concurrent recommendation that Congress begin requiring ASCs to report cost and quality data, a perennial MedPAC recommendation that has yet to be enacted. ASC industry advocates support the push for quality reporting but not cost reporting.
In its March 15 report, MedPAC expresses concern "that significant payment disparities among Medicare's ambulatory care settings" — HOPDs, ASCs and physician offices — "for similar services are fostering undesirable financial incentives." The commission contends that Medicare should strive to pay "similar amounts for similar services" and that, for now, the proposed 1% update for hospital outpatient services "is warranted to limit the growing payment rate disparities among ambulatory care settings."
Read the full March 2011 report here.
Irene Tsikitas
