HMO demonstration project may face delay.

This interim final rule with comment period delays for 1 year the effective date of the last sentence of 42 CFR 411.354(d)(1). Section 411.354(d)(1) was promulgated in the final rule entitled "Medicare and Medicaid Programs; Physicians' Referrals to Health Care Entities With Which They Have Financial Relationships," published in the Federal Register on January 4, 2001 (66 FR 856). A 1-year delay in the effective date of the last sentence in Section 411.354(d)(1) will give Department officials the opportunity to reconsider the definition of compensation that is "set in advance" as it relates to percentage compensation methodologies in order to avoid unnecessarily disrupting existing contractual arrangements for physician services. Accordingly, the last sentence of Section 411.354(d)(1), which would have become effective January 4, 2002, will not become effective until January 6,2003.

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S.↗

PubMed2001

Medicare program; changes to the hospital outpatient prospective payment system for calendar year 2002. Final rule.

This final rule revises the Medicare hospital outpatient prospective payment system to implement applicable statutory requirements, including relevant provisions of the Medicare, Medicaid,and SCHIP Benefits Improvement and Protection Act of 2000, and changes arising from our continuing experience with this system. In addition, it describes changes to the amounts and factors used to determine the payment rates for Medicare hospital outpatient services paid under the prospective payment system. This final rule also announces a uniform reduction of 68.9 percent to be applied to each of the transitional pass-through payments.These changes are applicable to services furnished on or after January 1, 2002.

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, U.S.↗