Source: CMS.gov Press Release October 31st, 2014
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued the Calendar Year (CY) 2015 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) and Ambulatory Surgical Center (ASC) Payment System Policy Changes and Payment Rates final rule with comment period [CMS-1613-FC] on October 31, 2014.
More than 4,000 hospitals and over 70 CMHCs are paid under the OPPS. There are approximately 5,300 Medicare-participating ASCs paid under the ASC payment system.
The OPPS provides payment for most hospital outpatient department services, and partial hospitalization services furnished by hospital outpatient departments and CMHCs. OPPS payment amounts vary according to the Ambulatory Payment Classification (APC) group to which a service or procedure is assigned.
The OPPS/ASC final rule is one of several rules for calendar year 2015 that reflect a broader Administration-wide strategy to deliver better care at lower cost by finding better ways to deliver care, pay providers, and use information. Provisions in these rules are helping to move our health care system to one that values quality over quantity and focuses on reforms such as measuring for better health outcomes, focusing on disease prevention, helping patients return home from hospital stays, helping manage and improve chronic diseases and fostering a more efficient and coordinated health care systems.
The CY 2015 OPPS/ASC final rule with comment period updates Medicare payment policies and rates for hospital outpatient department and ASC services and partial hospitalization services provided by community mental health centers (CMHCs), and refines programs that encourage high-quality care in these outpatient settings. This rule furthers the agency’s goal of delivery system reform by moving the OPPS toward making payments for larger packages of items and services rather than making separate payments for each individual service. This reform provides incentives for facilities to deliver more efficient, higher quality care. In CY 2015, CMS is implementing a policy finalized last year regarding comprehensive Ambulatory Payment Classifications (C-APCs), with some refinements and updates. The new C-APC payment policy makes a single payment for all related or adjunctive hospital items and services provided to a patient receiving certain primary procedures that are either largely device dependent, such as insertion of a pacemaker, or represent single session services with multiple components, such as intraocular telescope implantation.
This Fact Sheet addresses the general payment provisions of the Hospital OPPS and ASC prospective payment system for CY 2015. A separate fact sheet addressing the quality provisions of the final rule with comment period can be found here: http://cms.gov/Newsroom/MediaReleaseDatabase/Fact-sheets/2014-Fact-sheets.html.