From federal mandates to proposed state bills, here are three pieces of legislation that affect ASCs:
1. A CMS emergency regulation, issued Nov. 4, requires COVID-19 vaccination for staff at healthcare facilities participating in Medicare and Medicaid programs. The legislation covers more than 17 million workers at more than 76,000 facilities in the U.S., including ASCs, hospitals, nursing homes, dialysis facilities, home health agencies and long-term care facilities.
The rule applies to clinical and nonclinical employees and includes students, trainees and volunteers who work at Medicare or Medicaid-funded facilities.
CMS is requiring the facilities covered in the regulation to ensure eligible staff have received at least one vaccine dose prior to providing any treatment or service by Dec. 5. By Jan. 4, staff must be fully vaccinated with either two doses of Pfizer or Moderna's immunization or one dose of Johnson & Johnson's.
2. Bipartisan legislation aimed to improve CMS access to ASCs, dubbed the Outpatient Surgery Quality and Access Act of 2021, was recently introduced in the U.S. House and Senate. Reps. John Larson, D-Conn., and Devin Nunes, R-Calif., and Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Bill Cassidy, MD, R-La., introduced the bill.
The act would:
- Require CMS to publish quality data that allows patients to compare sites of service
- Eliminate the copay penalty Medicare beneficiaries pay for certain services when they are provided in an ASC
- Provide transparency about the criteria CMS is using to exclude procedures from the ASC-covered procedures list
- Add an ASC representative to the CMS advisory panel on hospital outpatient payment, which makes decisions that affect hospital outpatient departments and ASC fees and procedures.
- Align the inflation update for ASCs and hospital outpatient departments
3. Massachusetts House Speaker Ron Mariano is bringing a bill to the floor this month that would limit the growth of hospital chains and provider networks opening ASCs in the state. The bill is intended to protect community hospitals, Mariano said, according to a Nov. 4 report by GBH News.
Mariano's bill would require the state's Department of Public Health to weigh the cost and market impact of any medical provider expansion that requires new state licensing before determining if there is a need.