On Monday, May 21, 2012, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) published a reminder that, effective for services provided on or after July 1, 2012, the statutory moratorium allowing certain pathologists and independent laboratories to bill for the technical component (TC) of pathology services expires. This means the TC for those surgical pathology services provided under arrangement to Medicare hospital patients only will be considered covered and payable by Medicare if billed by the hospital. The hospital will receive additional payment under the Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) for services provided to outpatients, but such services are considered included in the diagnosis-related group reimbursement for inpatients
The May 11, 2012, Federal Register includes the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) proposed rule changes to the Long-Term Care Hospitals Prospective Payment System (LTCH PPS) for federal fiscal year 2013. Among the changes in the proposed rule: LTCH Rate Updates: The proposed LTCH-specific market is based solely on Medicare cost report data of LTCHs and excludes Inpatient Rehabilitation Facilities (IRFs) and Inpatient Psychiatric Facilities (IPFs) for the first time
On October 20, 2011, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued its final rule for Accountable Care Organizations (ACO) under the Medicare Shared Savings Program enacted in 2010 as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act . The proposed rule for this program, published April 7, 2011, created a large number of comments that have led to several significant changes to the final regulations