On Tuesday, the U.S. District Court of Columbia ruled that CMS exceeded its statutory authority last year when it applied a site-neutral payment reduction for outpatient clinic visits. Under the OPPS/ASC CY 2019 final rule, CMS reduced payments by 60% for clinic visits provided in off-campus Provider Based Departments (PBDs), which were originally exempted from site-neutral payments. These cuts were to take effect over the course of 2019 and 2020. CMS will likely seek an appeal, which would affect whether the second phase of the cuts will take place in 2020.

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