A proposal by the US Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services in its 2018 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment (OPPS) draft rule to take total knee replacement surgeries off its "inpatient procedures only" (IPO) list and to let the procedures be covered under Medicare on an outpatient basis could be a boon for some beneficiaries, but patient selection will have to be carefully weighed, payment experts say.
The agency also asked for comment in its 2018 year OPPS and Ambulatory Surgical Center proposal, released July 20, on whether partial hip arthroplasty (PHA) and total hip arthroplasty (THA)...