Medicare's 2017 Outpatient Payment Update
How the proposed reimbursement changes could impact your facility.
M
edicare
wants to
stop pay-
ing endoscopists for
sedating patients
and stop paying off-
campus hospital-
owned surgical cen-
ters so much. It
wants to remove
total knee replace-
ments from the inpa-
tient-only list and
remove pain man-
agement questions from patient satisfaction surveys. We cover that
and much more in our analysis of Medicare's 2017 Outpatient
Payment Update.
HOPD site neutrality. Medicare wants to pay newly built or
acquired hospital outpatient departments (HOPD) that are located
250 yards or more away from the hospital's main campus as it does free-
standing sites. This so-called site neutrality proposal has angered many
hospitals, but by no longer paying off-campus facilities the same as hos-
pital-based outpatient departments, CMS says it would save Medicare
about $500 million in 2017. Many of the services off-campus HOPDs pro-
vide are similar to those at freestanding ASCs or physician offices —
though they can cost Medicare up to 80% more (osmag.net/XjP7Ba).
"Hospitals will tell you that they bear a burden unlike freestanding
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Coding & Billing
Kendal Gapinski
• SITE NEUTRALITY Medicare plans to slash reimbursement to existing off-campus hospital
outpatient departments located 250 yards from the hospital's main campus.