AAHKS has commented on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) CY 2018 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment and Ambulatory Surgical Center Payment Systems Proposed Rule (HOPPS) and the CY 2018 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule Proposed Rule (MPFS). In the HOPPS proposed rule, CMS requested input on removing TKA from the inpatient only (IPO) list as well as the possible removal of Partial Hip Arthroplasty (PHA) and Total Hip Arthroplasty (THA) Procedures from the IPO List. The comment letter addresses regulatory burden issues including the opioid crisis, excessive reporting requirements for physicians and other issues.

The MPFS rule proposes changes to Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) reporting requirements and the Value Modifier to ease the transition to MIPS. However, CMS is proposing to change the physician fee schedule payment rates for services in nonexcepted Off-Campus Provider Based Departments from 50% of the Medicare Hospitals Outpatient Prospective Payment System (HOPPS) payment rate to 25% of the HOPPS rate. AAHKS has commented that CMS should not implement this 25% fee schedule Relativity Adjuster for 2018 without proper data first being collected and analyzed. Read the HOPPS and MPFS letters.