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COVER STORY Key Trends for ASCs


Surgery centers face an equal blend of challenge and opportunity in 2020 BY DEEDEE DALKE


From the expansion of covered


procedures play by


CMS to additional report- ing requirements, ASC administrators,


a


frontline role in keeping any surgery center running at peak performance. This year, ASCs, and the administra- tors that lead and manage them, are facing new challenges and need new tools and resources to face them.


CMS Expands Covered Procedures In its 2020 final payment rule, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) added total knee arthroscopy and several cardiac pro- cedures to the ASC payable list and took hip arthroplasty off the inpa- tient-only list, making it payable in hospital outpatient departments (HOPD). CMS continues to align the ASC and HOPD update factors and will increase reimbursements for all covered procedures by an average of 2.6 percent. To help its members, ASCA has updated its Medicare rate calculator for members to determine local payment rates for 2020. The final payment rule also adds a


new quality measure to the ASC Qual- ity Reporting Program that looks at hospital visits within seven days after general surgery in an ASC. Bill Pren- tice, ASCA chief executive officer, says that while the new quality measure will not require ASCs to do anything addi- tional to submit the data, centers should still be aware of the coming change, especially, as it relates to accommodat- ing the new CMS-approved procedures.


Data Sharing and TECFA Early last year, the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) issued its draft


TAKE ADVANTAGE OF SAVINGS ON PATIENT EXPERIENCE SURVEYS


Through ASCA’s affinity partnership program, ASCA members receive special discounted rates on patient experience and OAS CAHPS surveys administered by SPH Analytics.


ascassociation.org/ sph-analytics


of the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TECFA) to “support the full, network-to-network exchange of health information nation- ally.” The public comment period con- cluded in early summer. HHS, through its Office of the National Coordinator of Health IT, is trying to advance interop- erability in healthcare, which has big


16 ASC FOCUS JANUARY 2020 | ASCFOCUS.ORG


implications for all of healthcare, includ- ing ASCs. It offers the opportunity to realize efficiencies in patient onboard- ing, coding, claims and billing and, in the future, could help ASCs provide greater insight into hospital transfers. TEFCA is meant to be a guiding tool, a set of high-level principles, policies, and technical specifications that will ensure that electronic health information (EHI) can be shared in an efficient and secure manner. It is still in development, with a first draft released in January 2018 and a second draft released in April 2019. However, ASCs should be aware of emerging federal data sharing regulations per- taining to “information blocking.” In March 2019, ONC issued a proposed rule describing scenarios in which providers would be protected from data sharing penalties. Although there


The advice and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not represent official Ambulatory Surgery Center Association policy or opinion.


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