Four things to know about cardiology in ASCs for 2020:
1. CMS will pay for some angioplasty and stenting procedures at ASCs beginning Jan. 1. under its 2020 Medicare Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System and ASC Payment System Final Rule.
2. It's only a matter of time before more revenue-generating cardiology cases shift from hospitals to ASCs, a transition that has big implications for Medicare costs, according to Ronald Hirsch, MD. Large cardiology groups stand to gain from having at least one physician performing elective procedures at ASCs, he said.
3. Regulation are a major hurdle to doing cardiac procedures in an ASC, according to Tim Price, CEO Cardiac Centers of America. But laws that require heart procedures to be performed in settings that have facilities for open heart surgery aren't sustainable because they impede the shift of procedures to lower cost outpatient settings, he told Becker's ASC Review.
4. Jeff Dottl, a principal for Physicians Surgery Centers, told Becker's ASC Review that vascular-related procedures, such as atherectomies, one of several opportunities for cardiology procedures to be performed at ASCs.