Here are six legislative changes that impact ambulatory surgery centers for April 21, 2015.
The U.S. Senate has passed the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (HR 2), which effectively repeals the sustainable growth rate formula. The bill will also consolidate a number of reporting programs, including meaningful use, into one value-based payment system that focuses on alternative model. Read the full report on Becker's ASC Review.
President Barack Obama then signed signed the "doc fix" legislation, repealing the sustainable growth rate formula and ending the yearly ritual of Congress passing short-term patches to stall Medicare reimbursement cuts to physicians.
On March 31, HB999 was brought before the Health & Human Services Committee, the bill's last recorded action. The bill would allow Florida, which has 400 ASCs, to join the other 33 states that already allow ASCs to keep patients for 23 hours.
Senator Todd Gardenhire (R-Chattanooga) plans to lead a review of Tennessee's certificate of need program this summer. Sen. Gardenhire's proposed legislation, SB 0992, would remove a number of services from CON requirements.
Colorado passed a telehealth parity law, requiring the same reimbursement for telehealth visits as for in-person visits. The law goes into effect Jan. 1, 2017.
New proposed legislation from CMS would provide Medicaid eligibility and enrollment systems with federal funding to help maintain the systems. The federal government would provide funds at a 90 percent matching rate for design and development activities related to the information systems and at a 75 percent federal matching rate for maintenance and operations activities of the systems.
On April 1, New York State's "Emergency Medical Services and Surprise Bills" Law protects patients from "surprise bills" that may result from out-of-network physicians providing services to the patient without the patient's specific consent to being treated by an OON physician. Read more on the new law at Becker's Hospital Review.