CMS added 11 procedures to the ASC-covered list in the ASC Payment System Final Rule released Nov. 2 that were not included in the proposed rule.
"We thank CMS for heeding our request to move additional surgical procedures — including total shoulder arthroplasty — onto the ASC payable list," Ambulatory Surgery Center Association CEO Bill Prentice said in a Nov. 2 news release. "Doing so benefits both Medicare beneficiaries, who now have a lower cost choice for the care they need, and the Medicare program itself, which will save millions of dollars as volume moves to the high-quality surgery center site of service."
ASC leaders were concerned after CMS released its proposed rule in July, adding only 26 dental codes to the ASC-payable list.
Joseph D'Agostino, administrator at Snellville, Ga.-based Advanced Surgery Center Perimeter and Gwinnett Advanced Surgery Center, told Becker's the proposal was a "missed chance at significantly reducing Medicare costs."
Here are the 11 additional surgical codes:
- CPT Code 21194: Reconstruction of lower jaw with graft
- CPT Code 21195: Reconstruction of lower jaw without fixation
- CPT Code 23470: Reconstruction of shoulder joint
- CPT Code 23472: Reconstruction of shoulder joint
- CPT Code 27006: Incision of hip tendons
- CPT Code 27702: Reconstruction of ankle joint
- CPT Code 29868: Meniscal transplant knee with scope
- CPT Code 33289: TCAT implantation of wireless pulmonary artery pressure sensor
- CPT Code 37192: Insertion of intravascular vena cava filter
- CPT Code 60260: Repeat thyroid surgery
- CPT Code C9734: Ultrasound ablation/therapeutic intervention, other than uterine leiomyomata