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HOPD Medicare payment rates to increase by at least 3.7%

Ambulatory Surgery Reimbursement Update, November 8, 2005

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced that payment rates to hospital outpatient departments (HOPDs) will increase 3.7% in 2006, according to a press release from CMS.

About 3,800 hospitals will see this increase. Some four hundred rural hospitals will receive an additional 7.1% payment increase as detailed in the final Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) rule issued November 2.

"Today's final rule underscores Medicare's ongoing commitment to improving beneficiary access to quality outpatient services regardless of where they live," said CMS Administrator Mark B. McClellan, MD, PhD, in the statement. "We are also taking steps to make our payments more accurate and doing more to promote high-quality, prevention-oriented outpatient care."

The rule will become effective for HOPD services provided on or after January 1, 2006.

To view the press release, click here.

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