The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services approached hospital outpatient payments from different directions, but ended up in the same place--focused on reducing provider payments. On July 2, CMS posted for public inspection at the Federal Register a proposed rule for the calendar 2011 outpatient prospective payment system (OPPS) that pays hospital outpatient departments (HOPDs) and the ambulatory surgical center (ASC) payment system, tacking on other key issues such as graduate medical education costs. (The hefty title of the proposed rule is: "Medicare Program; Proposed Changes to the Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System and CY 2011 Payment Rates; Proposed Changes to the Ambulatory Surgical Center Payment System and CY 2011 Payment Rates; Proposed Changes to Payments to Hospitals for Certain Inpatient Hospital Services and for Graduate Medical Education Costs; and Proposed Changes to Physician Self-Referral Rules and Related Changes to Provider Agreement Regulations.") FierceHealthFinance