The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released its final 2016 ASC payment rule, Friday, October 30, 2015. In 2016, ASCs will receive a 0.3 percent payment increase. The adjustment is based on a projected rate of inflation of 0.8 percent minus a 0.5 percentage point productivity adjustment required by the Affordable Care Act. Unfortunately, this payment update is significantly lower than the 1.1 percent update in the proposed rule, which was based on a higher inflation rate of 1.7 percent minus a 0.6 percentage point productivity adjustment.
CMS added the following seventeen codes to the ASC-payable list:
CMS did not add any new measures to the ASC Quality Reporting Program for 2016. Additionally, CMS did not finalize its proposal to align the reporting deadline for all web-based measures in the ASC Quality Reporting Program for 2016. The deadline for the four measures submitted via QualityNet (ASC-6,ASC-7, ASC-9 and ASC-10) will remain August 15 in 2016. ASCs will be required to report on ASC-8 via NHSN by May 15, 2016.