Medicare Program: Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment and Ambulatory Surgical Center Payment Systems; Quality Reporting Programs; Payment for Intensive Outpatient Services in Hospital Outpatient Departments, Community Mental Health Centers, Rural Health Clinics, Federally Qualified Health Centers, and Opioid Treatment Programs; Hospital Price Transparency; Changes to Community Mental Health Centers Conditions of Participation, Changes to the Inpatient Prospective Payment System Medicare Code Editor; Rural Emergency Hospital Conditions of Participation Technical Correction
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 2024 based on our continuing experience with these systems. In this final rule, 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 updates and refines the requirements for the Hospital Outpatient Quality Reporting (OQR) Program, the ASC Quality Reporting (ASCQR) Program, and the Rural Emergency Hospital Quality Reporting (REHQR) Program. In this final rule, we are also establishing a payment for certain intensive outpatient services under Medicare, beginning January 1, 2024. In addition, this final rule updates and refines requirements for hospitals to make public their standard charge information and enforcement of hospital price transparency. We are finalizing changes to the CMHC Conditions of Participation (CoPs) to provide requirements for furnishing IOP services, and we are finalizing the proposed personnel qualifications for MHCs and MFTs. Additionally, we are finalizing the removal of discussion of the IPPS Medicare Code Editor (MCE) from the annual IPPS rulemakings, beginning with the FY 2025 rulemaking. Finally, we are finalizing a technical correction to the Rural Emergency Hospital (REH) CoPs under the standard for the designation and certification of REHs.