Understanding the CMS Proposed Rule for Hospital Outpatient and Ambulatory Surgical Centers - On Tech Ethics

Discusses the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ proposed rule for the 2026 hospital outpatient prospective payment system and ambulatory surgical centers. 

Our guest today is Eric Tower, a partner at the law firm Blank Rome. Eric serves as a trusted advisor to healthcare clients on a wide range of corporate transactional and operational matters. He is well-versed in handling mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, fraud and abuse compliance, physician practice acquisitions, financing, litigation, and corporate governance matters. 

Additional resources: 

• CMS fact sheet: https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/fact-sheets/calendar-year-2026-hospital-outpatient-prospective-payment-system-opps-and-ambulatory-surgical 
• Impact of Recent CMS Rule on Site Neutrality and 340B Programs—Implications for Oncology Services: https://www.blankrome.com/publications/impact-recent-cms-rule-site-neutrality-and-340b-programs-implications-oncology
• CITI Program’s course catalog: https://about.citiprogram.org/course-catalog  

Chapters

• 0:03 Podcast Introduction
• 1:34 Eric Tower’s Background
• 2:42 Overview of the 2026 Medicare OPPS/ASC Rule
• 6:26 Site Neutral Payment Policies Explained
• 8:58 Future of Hospitals Under the New Rule
• 11:09 Podcast Promotion Break
• 11:28 High-Risk Patients and Payment Models
• 12:42 Elimination of the Inpatient Only (IPO) List
• 15:30 Impact on Patient Care and Ambulatory Settings
• 17:24 Preparing Hospitals and Providers for Change
• 20:19 Eric’s Experience with Hospital Integration
• 22:00 Medicare Innovation Center and Payment Reform
• 23:27 Capital Projects and Rural Healthcare Concerns
• 24:57 Podcast Conclusion and Resources