CMS is considering allowing physicians to perform up to 450 specific office-based surgical procedures at ASC.  The plan, which will commence in 2008, would make the procedures ASC-eligible but would cap the ASC’s facility fee for such procedures so they would not exceed the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule’s “non-facility practice expense payment.”

       Affected office-based services include the following:  shaving and destruction of skin lesions, repair of superficial wounds, drain/inject joint bursa, treatment of metatarsal fracture, nasal sinus therapy, drainage of bladder, biopsy of cervix, nerve block injections, treatment of retinal lesions and repair of ear drum.  CMS is focusing on excluding relatively inexpensive procedures, specifically those in the $100 to $200 range, from being shifted to ASCs.

       Shifting such procedures to the ASC will provide greater convenience for patients undergoing multiple procedures by eliminating a separate trip to the physician’s office.  The change will also make it easier for physicians to schedule more of their patients at the ASC, potentially decrease the number of unregulated office-based surgical suites and even making it easier for surgeons to comply with the Anti-Kickback Safe Harbors for ASCs.

       Please call the health law department at the Firm, if you have any questions.