Becker's ASC Review

7 ASC MANAGEMENT CMS relaxes ASC, hospital outpatient quality reporting requirements due to COVID-19 By Angie Stewart C MS is granting exceptions to Medicare quality reporting require- ments to ease the burden on providers battling the COVID-19 pan- demic, the agency announced March 22. CMS' new "extreme and uncontrollable circumstances policy exceptions and extensions" apply to provider, post-acute care and hospital programs, including the ASC Quality Reporting Program. The ASC Quality Reporting Program deadlines for submitting data from the fourth quarter of 2019 are now optional. CMS will use any fourth-quarter data submitted to calculate 2019 performance-based payment. For ASCs unable to submit fourth-quarter data, the agency will calculate 2019 rates based on data from Jan. 1, 2019, to Sept. 30, 2019, as well as other available data. Participants in the ASC Quality Reporting Program do not need to submit data for Jan. 1, 2020, through June 30, 2020; data from this time period won't be counted for performance or payment programs. However, first-quarter data submitted for the Hospital-Acquired Condition Reduction Program and the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing Program will be used for scoring. Each of these relaxed submission guidelines also applies to the Hospital Outpatient Quality Reporting Program. n Mayo Clinic pauses all construction to combat $3B deficit — 4 insights By Eric Oliver R ochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic has a $3 billion systemwide deficit that is forcing a series of operational changes, the Jacksonville Busi- ness Journal reports. What you should know: 1. The health system guaranteed full pay and benefits to its employees through April 28, but then furloughed a portion of the staff and reduce salaries across the system. 2. Mayo had to stop elective surgeries due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has affected revenues. 3. As a result of the decreased revenue, the health system is stopping all new construction, unless it would affect patient safety. 4. Mayo received approval to construct a $65 million facility in Jacksonville, Fla., earlier in April. The development would've added cardiology and gas- troenterology services to the campus. n 6 details on MedPAC's report to Congress: Number of ASCs up 2.6% in 2018 and more By Laura Dyrda M edPAC released its 2020 report, including recommendations to maintain beneficiary access to ASC services and keeping providers under financial pressure to constrain costs and require centers to submit cost data. Here are six things to know: 1. e number of ASCs increased by an av- erage annual rate of 1.5 percent from 2013 to 2017 and the number of ASCs increased 2.6 percent in 2018. Ninety-three percent of the new ASCs in 2018 were for-profit facili- ties. As a result, the MedPAC analysis found that current ASC supply is adequate to service the volume of care for beneficiaries. 2. MedPAC reported improvement in the first five years of the ASC-reported quality data, and it aims to make several changes to the upcoming quality-reporting program. However, ASCs are not using the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and System measures, and there is a lack of claims-based outcomes measures applying to ASCs, according to the report. 3. Medicare payments to ASCs per fee-for- service beneficiary were up 7.4 percent in 2018 aer rising an average of 4.9 percent per year from 2013 to 2017. 4. MedPAC recommended HHS collect cost data from ASCs "without further delay," as the agency cannot calculate a Medicare margin without that information. It does so for the other provider types. 5. MedPAC also concluded that the payment measures for ASCs are adequate to provide access to services and recommended no updates through 2021. 6. In 2018, 78 ASCs closed or merged. However, there were 224 new ASCs, bring- ing the total number of ASCs up to 5,717. n

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