CMS-1736-FC

Medicare Program:  Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment and Ambulatory Surgical Center Payment Systems and Quality Reporting Programs; New Categories for Hospital Outpatient Department Prior Authorization Process; Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule:  Laboratory Date of Service Policy; Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating Methodology; Physician-owned Hospitals; Notice of Closure of Two Teaching Hospitals and Opportunity To Apply for Available Slots, Radiation Oncology Model, and Reporting Requirements for Hospitals and Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs) to Report Acute Respiratory Illness During the Public Health Emergency (PHE) for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

This final rule with comment period revises the Medicare hospital outpatient prospective payment system (OPPS) and the Medicare ambulatory surgical center (ASC) payment system for Calendar Year (CY) 2021 based on our continuing experience with these systems.  In this final rule with comment period, we describe the changes to the amounts and factors used to determine the payment rates for Medicare services paid under the OPPS and those paid under the ASC payment system.  Also, this final rule with comment period updates and refines the requirements for the Hospital Outpatient Quality Reporting (OQR) Program and the ASC Quality Reporting (ASCQR) Program.  In addition, this final rule with comment period establishes and updates the Overall Hospital Quality Star Rating beginning with the CY 2021; removes certain restrictions on the expansion of physician-owned hospitals that qualify as “high Medicaid facilities,” and clarifies that certain beds are counted toward a hospital’s baseline number of operating rooms, procedure rooms, and beds; adds two new service categories to the Hospital Outpatient Department (OPD) Prior Authorization Process; provides notice of the closure of two teaching hospitals and the opportunity to apply for available slots for purposes of indirect medical education (IME) and direct graduate medical education (DGME) payments; and revises the Clinical Laboratory Date of Service (DOS) policy.  In addition, we are issuing an interim final rule with comment period modifying the Radiation Oncology Model (RO Model) Model performance period for CY 2021, and establishing new requirements in the hospital and critical access hospital (CAH) Conditions of Participation (CoPs) for tracking the incidence and impact of Acute Respiratory Illness (including, but not limited to, Seasonal Influenza Virus, Influenza-like Illness, and Severe Acute Respiratory Infection) during the ongoing COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE).

The final rule with comment period (CMS-1736-FC) is available in the "Related Links" section below. The supporting files are located in the "Downloads" section below: