Bloomberg Law
Dec. 2, 2020, 11:20 PM

Medicare Patients Get More Choices for Outpatient Surgical Care

Sara Hansard
Sara Hansard
Reporter
Jacquie Lee
Jacquie Lee
Reporter

Medicare patients will have more choices to get care in a hospital outpatient setting under a rule finalized Wednesday by the Trump administration.

The final rule will give hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers more flexibility to determine the most appropriate site of care for procedures, which will increase competition and give beneficiaries more affordable choices, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services said in a fact sheet. It will also help hospitals handle surges of Covid-19 patients by allowing them to treat non-Covid patients in outpatient settings, the agency said.

The CMS will phase out, over a ...