In its March report to Congress, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission recommended cutting the 2023 Medicare conversion factor for ASCs and to require ASCs to report cost data.
The ASC conversion factor, set at $49.92 for 2022, is updated through the hospital market basket index, which uses price data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The currently projected hospital market basket index increase for 2023 is a 2 percent, but Medicare recommends decreasing federal spending by $50 million to $250 million in the first year for ASCs and by less than $1 billion over five years.
Because ASCs do not submit data on the cost of services they provide to Medicare, the most recent complete payment data available is from 2020, MedPAC said in its report released March 15. The commission found in its analysis that, although the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic varies across individual ASCs, they are best addressed through targeted temporary policies rather than a permanent change to all ASC payment rates in 2023. It said it does not anticipate any long-term, pandemic-related effects that would warrant the update.
Although cost data is inadequate, data shows the volume of ASC services increased in 2019 and rebounded by December 2020. Additionally, the complexity of ASC procedures and number of ASCs increased in 2020.
MedPAC also recommended that the HHS require ASCs to provide cost data to allow for growth of ASCs' costs over time and evaluate Medicare payments relative to the costs of ASCs.