Effective Date: January 1, 2008

Implementation Date: January 5, 2009

Beginning January 5, 2009, for dates of service on or after January 1, 2008, Medicare will pay physicians at the facility rate for furnishing procedures in ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs) that are excluded from the list of covered ASC procedures. In essence, the fee paid on all physician services performed in ASCs (place of service code of 24) will be the lower facility fee and not the non-facility fee.

Because the excluded procedures have been specifically identified by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services as procedures that could pose a significant risk to beneficiary safety or would be expected to require an overnight stay, CMS does not believe it would be appropriate to provide a payment based on the non-facility rate to physicians who furnish them in the ASC setting.

Additional information is available on the CMS Web site. Here is the link to the MLN Matters article MM6052 .