|
|
|
|
| New ASC Payment System Undergoing Final Review
|
|
We'll soon know the details of the long-awaited revamped ASC payment system, according to a notice on FASA's Web site. The draft regulations covering the new ASC payment system are in the hands of the White House's Office of Management and Budget, which is responsible for reviewing draft regulations before publication. The OMB is also reviewing revisions to Medicare's conditions for coverage for ASCs.
While both these rules could be made public at any time, FASA expects the payment system rule to be released in the summer and final ASC rates for 2008 to be available in November as part of the rule setting outpatient hospital payments for 2008. FASA expects the proposed rule revising the ASC conditions for coverage to be released in August 2008, which would cover the requirements that ASCs have to meet to become Medicare-certified.
Medicare's proposed ASC payment system would link ASC and hospital outpatient department rates, but ASCs would receive 38 percent less for the same procedures done in hospital outpatient settings. Also, ASCs wouldn't receive the same annual payment rate updates, the same wage index adjustments or the same add-ons that hospitals receive for innovative pharmaceuticals, medical devices and implants. The new system will be implemented Jan. 1, 2008.
|
|
 |
^ Back to Top |
|
|
|
|
| CMS May Mandate Disclosure of Physician Ownership
|
|
We'll soon know the details of the long-awaited revamped ASC payment system, according to a notice on FASA's Web site. The draft regulations covering the new ASC payment system are in the hands of the White House's Office of Management and Budget, which is responsible for reviewing draft regulations before publication. The OMB is also reviewing revisions to Medicare's conditions for coverage for ASCs.
While both these rules could be made public at any time, FASA expects the payment system rule to be released in the summer and final ASC rates for 2008 to be available in November as part of the rule setting outpatient hospital payments for 2008. FASA expects the proposed rule revising the ASC conditions for coverage to be released in August 2008, which would cover the requirements that ASCs have to meet to become Medicare-certified.
Medicare's proposed ASC payment system would link ASC and hospital outpatient department rates, but ASCs would receive 38 percent less for the same procedures done in hospital outpatient settings. Also, ASCs wouldn't receive the same annual payment rate updates, the same wage index adjustments or the same add-ons that hospitals receive for innovative pharmaceuticals, medical devices and implants. The new system will be implemented Jan. 1, 2008.
|
|
|
^ Back to Top |
|
|
|
|
| Robotic Surgery Aids Prostate Cancer Treatment
|
|
Robotic surgery may improve survival rates for prostate cancer patients when the technology is used to perform laparoscopic radical prostatectomy, a procedure that removes the entire prostate gland and surrounding tissue, according to researchers at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. Using a robotic system, the researchers say, can decrease the likelihood that cancerous cells remain in the body by reducing the positive surgical margins. They presented their findings last month at the annual meeting of the American Urological Society in Anaheim, Calif.
The research team says that the presence of a positive surgical margin increases the chance that the prostate gland's production of protein will rise after surgery, raising the risk that the cancer will survive and progress. "We demonstrated a significant improvement in the positive surgical margin rate with the addition of robotics to an established LRP," said Costas Lallas, MD, assistant professor of urology at Jefferson and one of the study's researchers.
Dr. Lallas and his colleagues reviewed the cases of 247 men who underwent prostrate cancer surgery between March 2000 and August 2006. Of those patients, 197 underwent standard laparoscopic prostatectomy and 50 underwent a robotically assisted procedure. Patients undergoing robotic surgery demonstrated a positive surgical margin rate of 6 percent, considerably less than the 18 percent shown by the patients undergoing standard laparoscopic prostatectomy.
|
|
|
^ Back to Top |
|
|
|
|
| News and Notes
|
|
Robotic surgery may improve survival rates for prostate cancer patients when the technology is used to perform laparoscopic radical prostatectomy, a procedure that removes the entire prostate gland and surrounding tissue, according to researchers at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. Using a robotic system, the researchers say, can decrease the likelihood that cancerous cells remain in the body by reducing the positive surgical margins. They presented their findings last month at the annual meeting of the American Urological Society in Anaheim, Calif.
The research team says that the presence of a positive surgical margin increases the chance that the prostate gland's production of protein will rise after surgery, raising the risk that the cancer will survive and progress. "We demonstrated a significant improvement in the positive surgical margin rate with the addition of robotics to an established LRP," said Costas Lallas, MD, assistant professor of urology at Jefferson and one of the study's researchers.
Dr. Lallas and his colleagues reviewed the cases of 247 men who underwent prostrate cancer surgery between March 2000 and August 2006. Of those patients, 197 underwent standard laparoscopic prostatectomy and 50 underwent a robotically assisted procedure. Patients undergoing robotic surgery demonstrated a positive surgical margin rate of 6 percent, considerably less than the 18 percent shown by the patients undergoing standard laparoscopic prostatectomy.
|
|
|
^ Back to Top |
|
|
|
|
|
|
