August 29, 2020 / Susan Morse, Managing Editor
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ push to move procedures from inpatient to less expensive outpatient care continues, with revenue at risk for lucrative joint replacement starting in 2021.
CMS’s continued push to the outpatient setting has been going on for some time, but the agency has found its sea legs in the recent hospital outpatient prospective payment system proposed rule, according to Stuart Clark, a managing director for The Advisory Board Company, in an August 27 presentation on payment updates. 
CMS is slowly phasing out the inpatient only list over the next three years and is adding more services to the ambulatory surgical center list. There’s around 1,400 total codes on the list right now which are expected to be phased out by 2024.
For 2021, CMS has added 11 new procedures to the ASC list, including musculoskeletal services and total hip replacement.