FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 06, 2006
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ADVAMED ACKNOWLEDGES CMS EFFORTS TO MODERNIZE PAYMENT SYSTEMS; CONCERNS REMAIN ABOUT PATIENT ACCESS TO TECHNOLOGY
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WASHINGTON, D.C. – AdvaMed President and CEO Stephen J. Ubl today issued the following statement on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) 2007 final rules for the Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS), ambulatory surgery center (ASC) reimbursement, and the Physician Fee Schedule:
“The final rules have both good news and bad news. Advanced medical technologies are enabling more procedures to be done in outpatient and ambulatory settings allowing patients who would have otherwise required an overnight hospital stay to return home the same day. We are pleased that CMS recognizes the importance of responding to this shift to outpatient services by addressing quality, transparency and payment accuracy to modernize the payment system. CMS should also be credited for recognizing the complexity of developing quality measures for the hospital outpatient setting. We look forward to working with the Agency to develop further improvements to the system.
“However, we remain concerned that the data being used to calculate payment rates are old and thereby undermine payment accuracy. Patient access to treatments in the outpatient and ambulatory surgery center settings could be affected. The claims being used to base the rates are at least two years old and the cost reports are even older. We continue to encourage the Agency to consider ways to use more current external data to improve payment rate accuracy.
“We were disappointed that CMS did not make broader changes to its process for developing new test payment rates under the clinical lab fee schedule. However, we appreciated CMS’s acknowledgement that it would consider change in the future and involve interested stakeholders. We look forward to fully cooperating with CMS in developing much-needed improvements in this area.
“The cuts mandated by Congress to imaging services providers are unacceptable. We will work with the imaging community and Congress to ensure that patients continue to have access to critical diagnostic and treatment technologies.”
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AdvaMed member companies produce the medical devices, diagnostic products and health information systems that are transforming health care through earlier disease detection, less invasive procedures and more effective treatments. Our members produce nearly 90 percent of the health care technology purchased annually in the United States and more than 50 percent purchased annually around the world. AdvaMed members range from the largest to the smallest medical technology innovators and companies.