OPPS' packaging concept explodes

The 2008 OPPS final rule marks the first occasion in which hospitals have seen a radical change to packaging and other methodologies to control rapidly growing healthcare expenditures under the OPPS, says William L. Malm, ND, practice director of revenue cycle management at HCPro, Inc., in Marblehead, MA.

CMS released the 2008 OPPS final rule (CMS-1392-FC) on November 1, 2007, and it takes effect January 1. In addition to finalizing most of its proposals, CMS created a new type of APC in the rule-a composite APC-that in certain circumstances provides a single payment to cover services across the entire patient encounter.