The American College of Gastroenterology, the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy and the American Gastroenterological Association praised a number of CMS' changes to the ASC payment final rule in a release.
The societies previously applauded a number of CMS' changes in a letter to Administrator Seema Verma, including the agency's finalized proposal to replace the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers with the Hospital Market Basket as the annual inflationary update for ASC payments, urging CMS to make the change permanent, and not just for the proposed time frame of 2019 through 2023.
CMS modified its device use policy to allow procedures that involved single-use devices, and lowered the device-intensive procedure threshold to surgeries where the device accounts for 30 percent of the overall procedure, as opposed to 40 percent. Several device-intensive GI procedures benefit from the change, including:
● Esoph endoscope w/drain cyst, with a $648.18 increase from the 2018 rate.
● ERCP duct stent placement, with a $641.76 increase from the 2018 rate.
● ERCP stent exchange w/dilate, with a $641.76 increase from the 2018 rate.
● Small bowel endoscopy/stent, with a $641.76 increase from the 2018 rate.
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