ASC legislation introduced in Senate

Editor's Note

This week, US Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID) introduced the Ambulatory Surgical Center Quality and Access Act of 2015, which is intended to preserve patient access to ASCs, The ASC Association reports.

The Act would:

• Fix a flaw that allows Medicare to use different measures of inflation for ASCs and hospital outpatient departments (HOPDs) when setting rates.
• Require transparency in quality reporting, and require Medicare to publish patient accessible quality data.
• Direct Medicare to add a representative of the ASC community to its Advisory Panel on Hospital Outpatient Payment.
• Require Medicare to disclose which of six criteria triggers a procedure to be excluded from the ASC approved list.