Final rule 2016
Packaging Policies:
In CY 2015, we conditionally packaged certain ancillary
services when they are integral, ancillary, supportive, dependent, or
adjunctive to a primary service.
For CY 2016, we are proposing to expand the set of conditionally
packaged ancillary services to include three new APC.
Conditionally Packaged Outpatient Laboratory Tests
: For CY 2016, we are proposing to conditionally package laboratory
tests (regardless of the date of service) on a claim with a service that
is assigned status indicator “S,” “T,” or “V” unless an exception applies
or the laboratory test is “unrelated” to the other HOPD service or
services on the claim. We are proposing to establish a new status
indicator “Q4” for this purpose. When laboratory tests are the only
services on the claim, a separate payment a CLFS payment rates
would be made. The “L1” modifier would still be used for “unrelated”
laboratory tests.
Comprehensive APCs: We implemented the comprehensive APCs (CAPCs) policy for CY 2015 with a total of 25 C -APCs.In CY 2016, we
are not proposing extensive changes to the already established
methodology used for C-APCs. However, we are proposing to create
nine new C-APCs that meet the previously established criteria.
APC Restructuring: Section 1833(t)(9)(A)of the Act requires the
Secretary to review certain components of the OPPS, not less often
than annually, and to revise the groups, relative payment weights, and
other adjustments that take into account changes in medical practices,
changes in technologies, and the addition of new services, new cost
data, and other relevant information and factors. For CY 2016, we
conducted a comprehensive review of the structure of the APCs and
codes and are proposing to restructure the OPPS APC groupings for
nine APC clinical families based on the following principles:(1)
improved clinical homogeneity ; (2) improved resource homogeneity
; (3) reduced resource overlap in longstanding APCs; and (4) greater
simplicity and improved understandability of the OPPS APC structure.
New Process for Device Pass-ThroughPayment: Beginning in CY
2016, we are proposing to add a rulemaking component to the current
quarterly device pass-through payment application process.
Specifically, we are proposing to supplement the quarterly process by
including a description of applications received (whether they
are approved or denied) as well as our rationale for approving or
denying the application in the next applicable OPPS proposed rule.
This proposed change would help achieve the goals of increased
transparency and stakeholder input.In addition, the proposal
would align a portion of the OPPS device pass -through payment
application process with the already established IPPS application
process for new medical services and new technology add-on
payments.We also are proposing that a devicethat requires FDA
premarket approval or clearance is eligible to apply for device passthrough payment only if it is “new,” meaning that the pass-through
payment application is submitted within 3years from the date of the
applicable FDA premarket approval, clearance, or investigational
device exemption.
Two-MidnightRule: The 2-midnight rule was adopted effective
October1,2013. Under the 2-midnight rule, an inpatient admission is
generallyappropriate for Medicare Part A payment if the physician (or
other qualified practitioner) admits the patient as an inpatient based
upon the expectation that the patient will need hospital care that
crosses at least 2 midnights. In assessing the expected duration of
necessary care, the physician (or other practitioner) may take into
account outpatient hospital care received prior to inpatient admission.
If the patient is expected to need less than 2 midnights of care in the
hospital, the services furnished should generally be billed as
outpatient services. In this proposed rule, we are proposing to modify
our existing “rare and unusual” exceptions policy under which the only
exceptions to the 2-midnight benchmark were cases involving services
designated by CMS as inpatient only, and those appropriate for
Medicare Part A payment if the physician (or other qualified
practitioner) admits the patient as an inpatient based upon the
expectation that the patient will need hospital care that crosses at
least 2 midnights. In assessing the expected duration of necessary
care, the physician (or other practitioner) may take into account
outpatient hospital care received prior to inpatient admission. If the
patient is expected to need less than 2 midnights of care in the
hospital, the services furnished should generally be billed as
outpatient services. In this proposed rule, we are proposing to modify
our existing “rare and unusual” exceptions policy under which the only
exceptions to the 2-midnight benchmark were cases involving services
designated by CMS as inpatient only, and those rare and unusual
circumstances published on the CMS Web site or other subregulatory
guidance, to also allow exceptions to the 2-midnight benchmark to be
determined on a case-by-case basis by the physician responsible for
the care of the beneficiary, subject to medical review.However, we
continue to expect that stays under 24 hours would rarely qualify for
an exception to the 2-midnight benchmark.In addition, we are revising
our medical review strategy and announcing that no later than October
1, 2015, we are changing the medical review strategy and have
Quality Improvement Organization (QIO) contractors conduct reviews
of short inpatient stays rather than the Medicare administrative
contractors (MACs).
TABLE 4.—PROPOSED CY 2016 PACKAGED REVENUE CODES
Revenue
Code Description
250 Pharmacy; General Classification
251 Pharmacy; Generic Drugs
252 Pharmacy; Non-Generic Drugs
254 Pharmacy; Drugs Incident to Other Diagnostic Services
255 Pharmacy; Drugs Incident to Radiology
257 Pharmacy; Non-Prescription
258 Pharmacy; IV Solutions
259 Pharmacy; Other Pharmacy
260 IV Therapy; General Classification
261 IV Therapy; Infusion Pump
262 IV Therapy; IV Therapy/Pharmacy Svcs
263 IV Therapy; IV Therapy/Drug/Supply Delivery
264 IV Therapy; IV Therapy/Supplies
269 IV Therapy; Other IV Therapy
270 Medical/Surgical Supplies and Devices; General Classification
271 Medical/Surgical Supplies and Devices; Non-sterile Supply
272 Medical/Surgical Supplies and Devices; Sterile Supply
275 Medical/Surgical Supplies and Devices; Pacemaker
276 Medical/Surgical Supplies and Devices; Intraocular Lens
278 Medical/Surgical Supplies and Devices; Other Implants
279 Medical/Surgical Supplies and Devices; Other Supplies/Devices
280 Oncology; General Classification
289 Oncology; Other Oncology
331
Radiology- Therapeutic and/or Chemotherapy Administration; Chemotherapy
Admin – Injected
332
Radiology- Therapeutic and/or Chemotherapy Administration; Chemotherapy
Admin – Oral
335
Radiology- Therapeutic and/or Chemotherapy Administration; Chemotherapy
Admin – IV
343 Nuclear Medicine; Diagnostic Radiopharmaceuticals
344 Nuclear Medicine; Therapeutic Radiopharmaceuticals
360 Operating Room Services; General Classification
361 Operating Room Services; Minor Surgery
362 Operating Room Services; Organ Transplant- Other than Kidney
369 Operating Room Services; Other OR Services
370 Anesthesia; General Classification
371 Anesthesia; Anesthesia Incident to Radiology
372 Anesthesia; Anesthesia Incident to Other DX Services
379 Anesthesia; Other Anesthesia
Revenue
Code Description
390Administration, Processing and Storage for Blood and Blood Components;
General Classification
392Administration, Processing and Storage for Blood and Blood Components;
Processing and Storage
399Administration, Processing and Storage for Blood and Blood Components;
Other Blood Handling
410 Respiratory Services; General Classification
412 Respiratory Services; Inhalation Services
413 Respiratory Services; Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
419 Respiratory Services; Other Respiratory Services
621Medical Surgical Supplies – Extension of 027X; Supplies Incident to
Radiology
622Medical Surgical Supplies – Extension of 027X; Supplies Incident to Other
DX Services
623 Medical Supplies – Extension of 027X, Surgical Dressings
624Medical Surgical Supplies – Extension of 027X; FDA Investigational
Devices
630 Pharmacy – Extension of 025X; Reserved
631 Pharmacy – Extension of 025X; Single Source Drug
632 Pharmacy – Extension of 025X; Multiple Source Drug
633 Pharmacy – Extension of 025X; Restrictive Prescription
681 Trauma Response; Level I Trauma
682 Trauma Response; Level II Trauma
683 Trauma Response; Level III Trauma
684 Trauma Response; Level IV Trauma
689 Trauma Response; Other
700 Cast Room; General Classification
710 Recovery Room; General Classification
720 Labor Room/Delivery; General Classification
721 Labor Room/Delivery; Labor
722 Labor Room/Delivery; Delivery Room
724 Labor Room/Delivery; Birthing Center
729 Labor Room/Delivery; Other Labor Room/Delivery
732 EKG/ECG (Electrocardiogram); Telemetry
760 Specialty Services; General Classification
761 Specialty Services; Treatment Room
762 Specialty services; Observation Hours
769 Specialty Services; Other Specialty Services
770 Preventive Care Services; General Classification
801 Inpatient Renal Dialysis; Inpatient Hemodialysis
802 Inpatient Renal Dialysis; Inpatient Peritoneal Dialysis (Non-CAPD)
Revenue
Code Description
803 Inpatient Renal Dialysis; Inpatient Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal
Dialysis (CAPD)
804Inpatient Renal Dialysis; Inpatient Continuous Cycling Peritoneal Dialysis
(CCPD)
809 Inpatient Renal Dialysis; Other Inpatient Dialysis
810 Acquisition of Body Components; General Classification
819 Acquisition of Body Components; Other Donor
821 Hemodialysis-Outpatient or Home; Hemodialysis Composite or Other Rate
824 Hemodialysis-Outpatient or Home; Maintenance – 100%
825 Hemodialysis-Outpatient or Home; Support Services
829 Hemodialysis-Outpatient or Home; Other OP Hemodialysis
942Other Therapeutic Services (also see 095X, an extension of 094x);
Education/Training
943Other Therapeutic Services (also see 095X, an extension of 094X), Cardiac
Rehabilitation
948Other Therapeutic Services (also see 095X, an extension of 094X),
Pulmonary Rehabilitation
Proposed Observation Comprehensive APC
As part of our proposed expansion of the C-APC payment policy methodology,
we have identified an instance where we believe that comprehensive payments are
appropriate, that is, when a claim contains a specific combination of services performed
in combination with each other, as opposed to the presence of a single primary service
identified by status indicator “J1.” To recognize such instances, for CY 2016, we are
proposing to create a new status indicator “J2” to designate specific combinations of
services that, when performed in combination with each other and reported on a hospital
Medicare Part B outpatient claim, would allow for all other OPPS payable services and
items reported on the claim (excluding all preventive services and certain Medicare Part
B inpatient services) to be deemed adjunctive services representing components of a
comprehensive service and resulting in a single prospective payment for the
comprehensive service based on the costs of all reported services on the claim.
Additional information about the proposed new status indicator “J2” and its proposed
C-APC assignment is provided below.
It has been our longstanding policy to provide payment to hospitals in certain
circumstances when extended assessment and management of a patient occur
(79 FR 66811 through 66812). Currently, payment for all qualifying extended
assessment and management encounters is provided through APC 8009 (Extended
Assessment and Management (EAM) Composite) (79 FR 66811 through 66812). Under
this policy, we allow services identified by the following to qualify for payment through
EAM composite APC 8009: a clinic visit HCPCS code G0463; a Level 4 or 5 Type A
ED visit (CPT code 99284 or 99285); a Level 5 Type B ED visit (HCPCS code G0384); a
direct referral for observation (G0379), or critical care (CPT code 99291) provided by a
hospital in conjunction with observation services of substantial duration (8 or more
hours) (provided the observation was not furnished on the same day as surgery or
postoperatively) (79 FR 66811 through 66812).
For CY 2016, we are proposing to pay for all qualifying extended assessment and
management encounters through a newly created “Comprehensive Observation Services”
C-APC (C-APC 8011) and to assign the services within this APC to proposed new status
indicator “J2,” as described earlier in this section. Specifically, we are proposing to make
a C-APC payment through the proposed new C-APC 8011 for claims that meet the
following criteria:
● The claims do not contain a HCPCS code to which we have assigned status
indicator “T” that is reported with a date of service on the same day or 1 day earlier than
the date of service associated with HCPCS code G0378;
● The claims contain 8 or more units of services described by HCPCS code
G0378 (Observation services, per hour);
● The claims contain one of the following codes: HCPCS code G0379 (Direct
referral of patient for hospital observation care) on the same date of service as HCPCS
code G0378; CPT code 99284 (Emergency department visit for the evaluation and
management of a patient (Level 4)); CPT code 99285 (Emergency department visit for
the evaluation and management of a patient (Level 5)) or HCPCS code G0384 (Type B
emergency department visit (Level 5)); CPT code 99291 (Critical care, evaluation and
management of the critically ill or critically injured patient; first 30–74 minutes); or
HCPCS code G0463 (Hospital outpatient clinic visit for assessment and management of a
patient) provided on the same date of service or 1 day before the date of service for
HCPCS code G0378;
● The claims do not contain a HCPCS code to which we have assigned status
indicator “J1.”
We are proposing to utilize all claims that meet the above criteria in ratesetting for
the proposed new C-APC 8011, and to develop the geometric mean costs of the
comprehensive service based on the costs of all reported OPPS payable services reported
on the claim (excluding all preventive services and certain Medicare Part B inpatient
services). The proposed CY 2016 geometric mean cost resulting from this methodology
is approximately $2,111, based on 1,191,120 claims used for ratesetting.
With the proposal to establish a new C-APC 8011 to capture qualifying extended
assessment and management encounters that currently are paid using composite APC
8009, we are correspondingly proposing to delete APC 8009, as it would be replaced with
proposed new C-APC 8011 (Comprehensive Observation Services).
As stated earlier, we are proposing to assign certain combinations of procedures
within proposed new C-APC 8011 to the proposed new status indicator “J2,” to
distinguish the new C-APC 8011 from the other C-APCs. Comprehensive payment
would be made through the new “Comprehensive Observation Services” C-APC when a
claim contains a specific combination of services performed in combination with each
other, as opposed to the presence of a single primary service identified by status indicator
“J1.” We believe that a distinction in the status indicator is necessary to distinguish
between the logic required to identify when a claim qualifies for payment through a
C-APC because of the presence of a status indicator “J1” procedure being present on the
claim versus when a claim qualifies for payment through a C-APC because of the
presence of a specific combination of services on the claim. Specifically, for proposed
new C-APC 8011, we believe the assignment of certain combinations of services that
qualify under proposed new C-APC 8011 to the new proposed status indicator “J2” is
necessary as claims containing status indicator “T” procedures on the same day or day
before observation care is provided would not be payable through the proposed new
C-APC 8011 and the initial “J1” logic would not exclude claims containing status
indicator “T” procedures from qualifying for payment.
For claims reporting services qualifying for payment through a C-APC assigned
to status indicator “J1” and qualifying for payment through a C-APC with a status
indicator of “J2,” we are proposing that payment would be made through the C-APC with
status indicator “J1” and all the OPPS payable services would be deemed adjunctive
services to the primary status indicator “J1” service, including the specific combination
of services performed in combination with each other that would otherwise qualify for
payment through a C-APC with a status indicator of “J2.” We are proposing that the
presence of the specific combination of services performed in combination with each
other that would otherwise qualify the service for payment through a C-APC because it is
assigned to status indicator “J2” on a hospital outpatient claim would not result in a
complexity adjustment for the service qualifying for payment through a C-APC because
it is assigned to status indicator “J1.”
Under the C-APC payment policy, we note that, instead of paying copayments for
a number of separate services that are generally, individually subject to the copayment
liability cap at section 1833(t)(8)(C)(i) of the Act, beneficiaries can expect to pay a single
copayment for the comprehensive service that would be subject to the copayment liability
cap. As a result, we expect that this policy likely reduces the possibility that the overall
beneficiary liability exceeds the cap for most of these types of claims.
(3) Proposed CY 2016 Policies for Specific C-APCs
a) Stereotactic Radiosurgery (SRS)
With the advent of C-APCs, the OPPS consists of a wide array of payment
methodologies, ranging from separate payment for a single service to a C-APC payment
for an entire outpatient encounter with multiple services. As described above, our
C-APC payment policy generally provides payment for a primary service and all
adjunctive services provided to support the delivery of the primary service, with certain
exceptions, billed on the same claim regardless of the date of service. Since
implementation of the C-APC policy and subsequent claims data analyses, we have
observed circumstances in which necessary services that are appropriately included in an
encounter payment are furnished prior to a primary service and billed separately. That is,
our analysis of billing patterns associated with certain procedures assigned status
indicator “J1” indicates providers are reporting planning services, imaging tests, and
other “planning and preparation” services that are integrally associated with the direct
provision of the “J1” procedure on a separate claim. The physician practice patterns
associated with various stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) treatments presents an example of
this issue.
Section 634 of the American Taxpayer Relief Act (ATRA) of 2012 (Pub. L.
112-240) amended section 1833(t)(16) of the Act by adding a new subparagraph (D) to
require that OPPS payments for Cobalt-60 based SRS (also referred to as gamma knife)
be reduced to equal that of payments for robotic linear accelerator-based (LINAC) SRS,
for covered OPD services furnished on or after April 1, 2013. This payment reduction
does not apply to hospitals in rural areas, rural referral centers, or SCHs. In the CY2015
OPPS/ASC final rule with comment period (79 FR 66809), we created C-APC 0067
(proposed to be renumbered to C-APC 5631 for CY 2016) for single-session cranial
stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS). Because section 1833(t)(16)(D) of the Act requires
equal payment for SRS delivered by Cobalt-60 based or LINAC based technology,
proposed renumbered C-APC 5631 includes two types of SRS delivery instruments,
which are described by HCPCS code 77371 (Radiation treatment delivery, stereotactic
radiosurgery [SRS], complete course of treatment cranial lesion(s) consisting of 1
session; multi-source Cobalt 60-based) and HCPCS code 77372 (Linear accelerator
based) (79 FR 66862).
Based on our analysis of CY 2014 claims data (the data used to develop the
proposed CY 2016 payment rates), we identified differences in billing patterns between
SRS procedures delivered using Cobalt-60 based and LINAC based technologies. In
particular, our claims data analysis results revealed that SRS delivered by Cobalt-60
based technologies (as described by HCPCS code 77371) typically included SRS
treatment planning services (for example, imaging studies, radiation treatment aids, and
treatment planning) and the actual SRS treatment on the same date of service and
reported on the same claim. In contrast, claims data analysis results revealed that SRS
delivered by LINAC based technologies (as described by HCPCS code 77372) frequently
included services related to SRS treatment (for example, imaging studies, radiation
treatment aids, and treatment planning) that were provided and reported on different dates
of services and billed on claims separate from the actual SRS treatment. Beause
Currently, composite APC 0375 packages payment for all services provided on
the same date as an inpatient only procedure that is performed emergently on an
outpatient who dies before admission represented by the presence of modifier “–CA” on
the claim. We are proposing to renumber APC 0375 to APC 5881 for CY 2016. For
CY 2016, we are proposing to provide comprehensive payment through proposed
renumbered C-APC 5881 for all services reported on the same claim as an inpatient only
procedure billed with modifier “–CA.” This proposal provides for all services provided
on the same claim as an inpatient only procedure billed with modifier “–CA” to be paid
through a single prospective payment for the comprehensive service.