Last month, the United States Senate passed a provision that would delay the due date of the Medicare Payment Advisory Committee report analyzing ambulance cost data. This delay was necessary due to CMS postponing the beginning of ambulance cost data collection because of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent issuing of the Public Health Emergency (PHE) waiver. Without the delay, MedPAC would have been required to report to Congress by March 15, 2023, with very little or no new ambulance data. As a result, MedPAC would have reinstated their recommendations from the 2002 ambulance report which supported most of the temporary ambulance increases but not all.
Thanks to those who spearheaded efforts and assisted with the passage of the delay, the deadline has now been changed to ‘‘not later than the second June 15th following the date on which the Secretary transmits data for the first representative sample of providers and suppliers of ground ambulance services to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, and as determined necessary by such Commission thereafter’’1. This amendment will allow for more ambulance cost data to be collected through the Medicare Ground Ambulance Data Collection System and will produce a more accurate report.
These changes will not affect the overall requirements of ground ambulance providers collecting data for the Medicare Ground Ambulance Data Collection System (MGADC). This delay is specific to the timeline of MedPAC submitting data results to Congress. For more information on the mandatory MGADC, please visit CMS’ website here or reach out to PCG by emailing MGADC@pcgus.com. As a reminder, half of all ground ambulance service providers are required to begin collecting the necessary data in 2022 (either by calendar or fiscal year) and the remainder will begin in 2023. A ten percent (10%) reduction to your department’s Medicare Part B payments will be issued if your department does not comply with the requirements set forth by CMS.
Click here to read the full report published by the American Ambulance Association.
Click here to learn more about PCG’s service offerings for the MGADC
