The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is postponing its 2002 hospital outpatient prospective payment system (HOPPS) rates, pending a review by the U.S. agency. Since issuing the final regulation on Nov. 30, CMS said it has discovered a number of technical miscalculations in the assignment of the costs of certain new technology devices to related procedure codes.
Following the corrections, CMS said it would perform a thorough review of all outpatient codes with medical experts and review the data again to ensure that there are no additional calculation errors. CMS did not specify which rates are under review. The rates were scheduled to go into effect on January 1.
CMS will publish the revised rates and codes in the Federal Register. There are more than 300 ambulatory payment classification codes (APCs) for outpatient procedures, and 53 APCs that involve new technology devices.
Hospitals will be paid for Medicare outpatient services at 2001 rates until CMS has completed its review, which will at least provide a welcome respite for hospital-based PET providers. In the final regulations published on November 30, Medicare reimbursement for FDG-PET procedures was cut from $2,331.18 to $1,375. CMS said that its review will not be extended beyond March 31, 2002, however.
By AuntMinnie.com staff writersDecember 19, 2001
Related Reading
New diagnosis guidelines could affect your operations and reimbursement, December 18, 2001
PET payment cut will force efficiency, procedure volume gains, December 6, 2001
CMS locks in 41% PET reimbursement cut, November 30, 2001
Reimbursement changes could sabotage PET growth in U.S., November 14, 2001
CMS floats 10% cut for 2002 mammography reimbursement, August 21, 2001
Copyright © 2001 AuntMinnie.com
