The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) in its biannual report recommended that ASCs should be required by Congress to submit cost data.
The report, published March 15, is the first of two that the commission is required to send to Congress each year, analyzing Medicare's payment policies, service efficiency and care quality and access.
In the report, MedPAC laid out the benefits ASCs provide, including lower costs per procedure for Medicare and lower cost sharing for its beneficiaries. The group contended that because AScs — unlike other medical facilities such as hospital outpatient departments, are not required by Congress to submit cost data — it cannot accurately evaluate how Medicare's current fee for service rates match with the costs faced by ASCs.
MedPAC suggested that ASCs have the capacity — and should be required — to submit cost data to Congress. The commission also said CMS should synchronize ASC quality reporting measures with the measures included in hospital outpatient quality reporting programs, to allow for better comparisons between ASCs and HOPDs.
The commission's second report will be published in June and will analyze Medicare issues in a broader capacity.