American Shared Hospital Services Announces 2014 Gamma Knife Reimbursement Rates Proposed by CMS

AMERICAN SHARED HOSPITAL SERVICES

, a leading provider of turnkey technology solutions for advanced radiosurgical and radiation therapy services, announced today that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has posted the proposed rule for Medicare's hospital outpatient prospective payment system for calendar year 2014. Within this proposed rule, CMS proposes updates for the delivery codes used for stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), including Gamma Knife services. CMS proposes to reimburse hospitals for a complete course of treatment comprised of a single session of SRS at $8,576 in 2014. This payment level would apply to single session treatment for all forms of SRS – Cobalt-60 SRS (Gamma Knife), robotic linear accelerator (LINAC) SRS or non-robotic LINAC SRS. By comparison, effective April 1, 2013, the Gamma Knife was reimbursed by CMS at $3,300 and during the period January 1, 2013 to March 31, 2013 at $7,910. This CMS proposed reimbursement rate is subject to comments from interested parties, and could change. Final CMS reimbursement rates are anticipated to be issued in fall 2013.