The American Ambulance Association has created Ambulance Cost Education (ACE) – a set of tools and information created by industry experts to prepare for the CMS cost collection requirements.
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How is the American Ambulance Association helping EMS agencies prepare for CMS cost data collection? Given that the last time the Medicare reimbursement model was last updated over 20 years ago, Inaccurate cost data may set Medicare payment policy for decades to come. Additionally, failure to accurately report your agency’s cost data may result in a skewed analysis of ambulance service delivery resulting in inaccurate EMS service delivery cost-related data. Additionally, this data will be publicly available and will likely be used by CMS and other payors to structure their reimbursement rates.ĮMS agencies that fail to report their cost data to CMS will have a 10% reduction in their reimbursement from CMS for a period of one year.
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The CMS ambulance cost collection will likely set Medicare payment policy for many years to come. The American Ambulance Association (AAA) believes that this cost collection process will reveal that the Ambulance Fee Schedule is inadequate to reimburse ambulance service providers for the provision of ambulance services. This is the first time that ambulance service cost-related data has been systematically collected and analyzed by CMS. Cost collection was scheduled to start in 2019 but has been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The reason CMS is collecting cost data is to assess the adequacy of the Ambulance Fee Schedule.
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CMS Ambulance Cost Data Collection Overviewįollowing the passage of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, all ambulance services that bill Medicare will be required to report certain cost related data to CMS. AMBER also includes a shorter cost survey, which we are encouraging all services to complete to assist our efforts with the Balance Billing Federal Advisory Committee. All AAA members and recipients of the SAVVIK Cost Data Collection Grant have access to our AMBER software, which allows services to enter their data in preparation for the federally mandated Cost Data Collection process.