Hospital Center

Spotlights

• CMS-1504-P (Display Date: July 2, 2010; Publication Date: August 3, 2010): Proposed Changes to the Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System and CY 2011 Payment Rates; Proposed Changes to the Ambulatory Surgical Center Payment System and CY 2011 Payment Rates; Proposed Changes to Payments to Hospitals for Certain Inpatient Hospital Services and for Graduate Medical Education Costs; and Proposed Changes to Physician Self-Referral Rules and Related Changes to Provider Agreement Regulations
• CMS-1504-N (Display Date: July 2, 2010; Publication Date: August 3, 2010): Changes to the Hospital OPPS and ASC PPS for CY 2010 to Reflect the Affordable Care Act
• CMS-1414-CN2 (Display Date: July 2, 2010; Publication Date: August 3, 2010 ):  Changes to the Hospital Outpatient PPS and Ambulatory Surgery Center PPS and CY 2010 Payment Rates
• This POA Fact Sheet [PDF 923KB] will help providers learn how to apply the Present on Admission (POA) indicator to the final set of diagnosis codes that have been assigned in accordance with Sections I, II, and III of the official coding guidelines.

• On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Affordable Care Act (ACA).  Section 3401(i) of the ACA imposes a 0.25 percentage point reduction to the OPPS market basket for Calendar Year (CY) 2010, effective for services furnished on or after January 1, 2010. 

  The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is working to expeditiously implement Section 3401(i) of ACA.  Providers will begin seeing payments under this provision in the late May/early June time frame.  Be on the alert for more information about this provision and its impact on past and future claims.  Also, Hospital Outpatient PPS Addendum A & Addendum B updates for January and April 2010 were updated to reflect Affordable Care Act changes.  (posted 5/10/10)

• Extension of the Outpatient Hold-Harmless Provision - On March 23, 2010, President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), which extends the Outpatient Hold Harmless provision, effective for dates of service on and after January 1, 2010, through December 31, 2010, to rural hospitals with 100 or fewer beds and to all sole community hospitals and Essential Access Community Hospitals regardless of bed size.  Please be on the alert for more information pertaining to the PPACA and its impact on past and future claims. (posted 3/31/10) 
• Extension of Moratorium That Allows Independent Laboratories to Bill for the Technical Component (TC) of Physician Pathology Services Furnished to Hospital Patients [PDF, 25KB] (posted 3/31/10) 

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