Federal health policymakers, including Congress, are looking for ways to rein in spending and encourage cost efficiencies in Medicare.
One policy proposal receiving considerable attention is site neutral payments for ambulatory services, which, if enacted, would have a meaningful impact on healthcare providers’ finances. For hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers, this includes potential reductions in Medicare fee-for-service payment rates for many key services. It is therefore imperative for providers and policymakers to understand and consider the clinical and economic factors that drive site-of-service practice patterns for individual procedure codes in order to ensure that site neutral payment proposals include the appropriate guardrails to preserve patient access.
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