CMS’ latest payment system changes and the implications for 2019 and beyond made waves on day one of the 2018 Revenue Integrity Symposium in Litchfield Park, Arizona. Attendees at the back-to-back general sessions on October 16 had the opportunity to ask revenue integrity experts questions about the 2019 outpatient prospective payment system (OPPS) and Medicare physician fee schedule (MPFS) proposed rules and revenue integrity hot topics, including price transparency, Medicare Advantage contracting, noncovered services, and more.
The healthcare revenue cycle is changing at break neck speed. Staying up to date on CMS regulations as well as overall payer trends is critical in this time. The National Association of Healthcare Revenue Integrity’s (NAHRI) 2018 Revenue Integrity Symposium (RIS) is one of the best conferences for unbiased education on essential healthcare revenue cycle and revenue integrity topics.
The 2019 IPPS final rule finalizes an overhaul of the newly coined Promoting Interoperability Programs, significant reductions to reporting requirements for quality initiatives, and updates to payment rates.
CMS’ 2019 OPPS proposed rule continues the agency’s efforts to enforce site-neutral payments and reduce drug payments by introducing policies to reduce reimbursement for hospital outpatient clinic visits at off-campus, provider-based departments (PBD) and expanding last year’s payment reductions for drugs purchased under the 340B discount pricing program by nonexcepted PBDs.
The 2019 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS) proposed rule, released July 12, introduces policies that focus on expanding the framework for reporting E/M visits and removing certain process measures under the Quality Payment Program (QPP).