As a result of the partial government shutdown, CMS is warning that it may delay until late November a series of major final rules setting a wide range of Medicare payment rates and policies for 2014. While CMS usually releases the final calendar year updates by November 1st each year, CMS is now saying that the 16-day government shutdown could push back the release date of the following rules to November 27th (or potentially later):

• CY 2014 Changes to the Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (HOPPS) and Ambulatory Surgical Center (ASC) Payment System;
• Revisions to Payment Policies under the Physician Fee Schedule and Other Revisions to Part B for CY 2014;
• Medicare Program; End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Prospective Payment System, Quality Incentive Program, and Durable Medical Equipment, Prosthetics, Orthotics, and Supplies (DMEPOS); and
• CY 2014 Home Health Prospective Payment System Final Rule.

This timeline could leave providers, suppliers, and other health care entities only a few weeks to prepare for potentially sweeping changes before they go into effect on January 1, 2014 (although certain provisions have different effective dates). For instance, stakeholder are awaiting final disposition of CMS proposals to, among many other things: expand payment bundles under the HOPPS; cut physician fee schedule reimbursement for more than 200 codes if the Medicare physician office payment exceeds the HOPPS or ASC payment; systematically reexamine payment amounts under the Clinical Laboratory Fee Schedule; establish a centralized review process for Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) coverage decisions; reduce ESRD rates by 9.4%; and revise various DMEPOS payment policies.