CMS' finalized site-neutral payment policy requiring Medicare to pay hospital outpatient departments and ASCs the same for outpatient procedures may not significantly hurt hospitals or greatly benefit ASCs, according to experts quoted in a Medscape article.
Here are the key details to know:
1. The experts cited in the article, including Michael Munger, MD, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians and Jonathan Weiner, PhD, professor of health policy and management at Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, argued the new policy encourages more competition in healthcare and helps CMS save money.
2. Physicians in private practice may not see any extra income through the site-neutral policy and will continue being paid on the Medicare fee schedule, they said
3. Another effect of the payment change is that hospitals won't be as incentivized to recruit physicians from private practices, according to the article.