COVER STORY


Attendees from California at ASCA’s 2018 June National Advocacy Day. Advocacy Makes a Difference


Participate in ASCA’s 2019 National Advocacy Day BY DANIELLE KASTER


●● T ●●


he ASC community had one of its most successful legislative


and regulatory years in 2018. ■●


The House of Representatives passed the ASC Payment Transpar- ency Act of 2018, which includes two major initiatives: ●●


add an ASC representative to the Advisory Panel on Hospital Out- patient Payment; and


require CMS to disclose the cri- teria for determining the ASC procedure list.


■●


President Trump signed the VA Maintaining Internal Systems and Strengthening Integrated Outside Networks (MISSION) Act of 2018, which will require the US Depart- ment of Veterans Affairs to reim- burse private-sector care providers in 30–45 days.


10 ASC FOCUS APRIL 2019 | ascfocus.org ■●


MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD


Stand up for your ASC and your patients. Register for ASCA’s 2019 National Advocacy Day, scheduled for September 24.


ascassociation.org/ nationaladvocacyday


An ASC industry representative tes- tified before a US Senate commit- tee on health care price and qual- ity transparency to demonstrate the high value care ASCs deliver.


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The 2019 Final Medicare Payment Rule will: ●●


move ASCs from the Consumer Price Index for all Urban Con-


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sumers (CPI-U) to the Hospital Market Basket;


lower the device-intensive pro- cedure threshold from 40 percent to 30 percent; and


add new procedures to the ASC- payable list under the revised definition of surgery. The continuous advocacy efforts of


the ASC community made these suc- cesses possible. ASCs across the coun- try attended National Advocacy Days, hosted facility tours and wrote their policymakers to educate their legisla- tors about the positive impact of sur- gery centers on America’s health care. The ASC industry now faces a new challenge as the 116th


Congress gets


to work. More than 110 new mem- bers were sworn into office on Janu- ary 3; that means we now have 110 new policymakers who need to be informed about ASCs and the high- quality, cost-effective care they pro- vide to constituents (see page 14 for the legislators to watch).


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