CMS Finalized Payment Rule for Outpatient Hospital and Ambulatory Surgical Center Services

On November 2nd, CMS published the final rule with comment period for outpatient hospital and ambulatory surgical center (ASC) services for CY 2024.

• Updates to OPPS and ASC Payment Rates
  In accordance with Medicare law, payment rates for outpatient hospitals and ASCs will receive a 3.1% update based on the projected hospital market basket percentage increase of 3.3%, reduced by a 0.2% productivity adjustment.
• Final Changes to the List of ASC Covered Surgical Procedures for CY 2024
  In response to stakeholder requests, CMS declined to add more than 200 codes to the ASC Covered Procedure List (CPL) for CY 2024 (Table 124), including codes for ablation services. Specifically, CMS notes that several of these codes are inherently non-surgical and would not qualify for the ASC CPL.