Becker's Healthcare May 7, 2021
CMS added hundreds of surgeries and procedure codes to the ASC payable list in 2021 and revealed plans to eliminate the inpatient-only list over the next few years.
Administrators are paying close attention to how CMS rolls out new ASC approvals and whether commercial payers update their policies to follow suit.
“We’ve seen joint replacement, spine and cardiac procedures being done in ASCs,” said Akshay Tavkar, senior director of ASC at Kelsey-Seybold Clinic in Houston. “It will be interesting to see what other cases will move from the hospital setting to an ASC in the near future.”
The willingness of CMS to pay for more complex procedures, such as total joint, spine and cardiac cases in ASCs, gives centers access...