On August 21 HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt announced that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is making available Medicare payment information for 61 procedures performed in Ambulatory Surgery Centers (ASCs). An ASC is an accredited, freestanding facility that operates exclusively for the purpose of providing surgical services to patients not requiring hospitalization. "This new data builds on the President's commitment to making more quality and price data available," Secretary Leavitt said. "By posting data about federal health care programs like Medicare, we are putting in motion efforts that will give Americans the information they need to make informed health care decisions." The information will assist patients in selecting the most appropriate setting for the delivery of high quality, efficient care. In addition to "Commonly Performed Procedures in ASCs", beneficiaries can access charge and Medicare payment data for ASC facility costs for a limited number of services administered in states and counties. The data is broken down at the county, state and national level. CMS is also concurrently releasing data on "Other Commonly Performed Procedures in ASCs", which contains similar charge and payment data, but for facility costs related to services of high utilization. "The new information on services performed in ASCs adds to the information that people can use to make better decisions on their care," said CMS Administrator Mark B. McClellan, M.D., Ph.D. "In all areas of care -- hospitals, physicians, nursing homes, health plans, and prescription drugs -- we are supporting collaborative efforts that are providing unprecedented information to help people get the best quality care for the best price." As part of its proposed revisions to the ASC payment system, CMS has also proposed, beginning in 2008, a more significant expansion of the approved list of procedures that can be safely performed in an ASC as part of its proposed revisions to the ASC payment system. Under the proposal, all surgical procedures, other than those that pose a significant safety risk or generally require an overnight stay, would be included in the approved list. The expanded list of ASC services combined with the improved payment accuracy under the revised payment system should encourage the selection of the most appropriate setting for the delivery of high quality, efficient care for patients undergoing surgical procedures. The CMS posting can be viewed through the link below.
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