CMS proposes ~618-code ASC-CPL expansion, tightens device pass-through pathway
Plus: Senate companion bill revives ASC site-neutral payment update fight. The day's rules, money, and enforcement, sourced and tiered below.
Plus: Senate companion bill revives ASC site-neutral payment update fight. The day's rules, money, and enforcement, sourced and tiered below.
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American Health Intel
Rules · Money · Medicine · Decoded daily
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| The Service Line |
Saturday, July 25, 2026 |
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CMS proposes ~618-code ASC-CPL expansion, tightens device pass-through pathway
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Plus: Senate companion bill revives ASC site-neutral payment update fight. The day's rules, money, and enforcement, sourced and tiered below.
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Rule Confidence: High
CMS, the Medicare agency, just proposed adding about 618 more surgical procedures to the list it lets ambulatory surgery centers get paid for, the biggest one-year expansion of that list in years.
The same rule strips 637 more procedures off the hospital-only list and raises ASC payment rates 2.4%, but tightens the pathway new medical devices use to qualify for extra payment starting October 1. Comments close August 31.
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Why it matters
This is the biggest one-year expansion of what Medicare will pay outpatient surgery centers to do, and it also makes it harder for new medical devices to reach the market quickly. Watch whether the code counts and the device pass-through cut survive to the final rule expected in November.
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Other Confidence: Medium
A Senate bill just revived a fight outpatient surgery center owners have lost every session since 2021: tying their Medicare payment updates to the same inflation index hospitals get.
S.4963, from Senators Bill Cassidy and Richard Blumenthal, would also kill a budget-neutrality cut the surgery center industry's trade group says has suppressed reimbursement for years.
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Why it matters
This is a policy fight the ASC industry has waged since 2021 without success; it explains why surgery centers say their Medicare pay raises lag hospitals, but passage this Congress is unlikely given the bill's history.
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