The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is seeking comments on its preliminary decisions on supervision levels for select Medicare hospital outpatient services, based on recommendations of the Hospital Outpatient Payment Panel at its meeting in August 2012. CMS proposes accepting the Panel’s recommendations that 15 services be changed from direct supervision to general supervision, including codes related to vaccine administration, blood collection, catheter insertion, and intravenous infusion, among others. A number of the Panel’s recommendations were not accepted because CMS views the services as either involving physician assessment or providing a significant potential for patient complications. CMS will accept public comment on the proposed decisions through October 24, 2012. CMS will post final decisions after considering any comments received, and the decisions will be effective on January 1, 2013.
