The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced late last week that it will delay publishing the final rule for Medicare's calendar year 2014 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS).

Due to the 16-day government shutdown earlier this month, CMS will not issue final rules for 2014 until Nov. 27. Calendar rules are typically released Nov. 1 and go into effect Jan. 1.

"Such late issuance will put providers in the very difficult position of having to implement new policies, procedures and payment formulas with only five weeks' notice," said Joanna Hiatt Kim, vice president of payment policy for the American Hospital Association, in a statement. "We urge CMS to issue the final rules as soon as possible."

Despite the delay, the rules will be effective on schedule — Jan. 1.

The imaging industry has been opposed to the new rules from the get-go because they would use separate cost centers to calculate reimbursement for CT and MR.

"The proposed policy results in payments that lack face validity and will result in absurd reimbursement rates by which CMS would pay hospitals nearly the same rate for advanced CT imaging as it would for X-ray," said Gail Rodriguez, executive director of MITA, from a statement back in September.

Essentially, it would lead to a substantial reduction in reimbursement for these services in the hospital setting.

Besides the OPPS rule, the delay will also affect the physician fee schedule, home health PPS and end-stage renal disease.

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