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The OOSS Legislative and Regulatory Agenda for 2011 — A Quick Look Back

While we all await the impact of the forthcoming elections and a critical Supreme Court opinion on the landmark health care reform bill and Big Medicine continues its battle to resolve the seemingly endless SGR problem, the ASC community made real progress in satisfactorily resolving a number of important regulatory concerns. We’ll discuss these in greater details in an early January OOSS Update Online, but let’s highlight these accomplishments before ushering in what will be a very busy 2012 in the Nation’s Capital.

 • Same Day Surgery. OOSS was instrumental in persuading CMS to repeal the onerous Medicare Condition for Coverage that prevented surgeons from performing Yag and other procedures on a patient in an ASC on the same that the patient was referred to the facility.

 • Higher ASC Update. Although CMS again rejected the ASC industry’s recommendation that facilities receive the Hospital Market Basket rather than the Consumer Price Index as an annual inflator, the agency did increase the ASC update from 0.9 percent in the proposed rule to 1.6 percent in the final regulation.

 • Quality Reporting Program Delayed and Improved. The final ASC payment rule delayed the implementation of the new ASC quality reporting program until October 1, 2012, nine months later that the proposed January 1 start date – a change welcomed by the surgery center community. Moreover, the measures adopted by the agency were developed by the ASC Quality Collaboration, of which OOSS is a member.

 • Growing Support for ASC Quality and Access Act. OOSS joins the ASC Association and other organizations in vehemently supporting The ASC Quality and Access Act of 2011, which represents a legislative wish list of our industry’s priorities in Washington. Through aggressive lobbying, grassroots activity by our members, and targeted political support of our Hill allies with OOSPAC funds, cosponsorship of the legislation has grown to include 5 Senators and 38 Representatives.

 Stay tuned for a detailed retrospective on our activities in Washington this past year and a look at the OOSS legislative and regulatory agenda for 2012.