Civilian Health and Medical Program of the Uniformed Services (CHAMPUS); TRICARE Program; Reimbursement

This final rule revises certain requirements and procedures for reimbursement under the CHAMPUS program, the purpose of which is to implement a comprehensive managed health care delivery system composed of military medical treatment facilities and CHAMPUS. Issues addressed in this rule include: implementation of changes made to the Medicare Prospective Payment System (PPS) upon which the CHAMPUS DRG-based payment system is modeled and required by law to follow wherever practicable, along with changes to make our DRG-based payment system operate better; clarification of payment reduction for noncompliance with required utilization review procedures; clarification of publication of list of ambulatory surgery procedures; limitation on ambulatory surgery group payment rates; extension of the balance billing limitations currently in place for individual and professional providers to non-institutional, non-professional providers; adjustment of the CHAMPUS maximum allowable charge (CMAC) rate in the small number of cases where the CMAC rate is less than the Medicare rate; implementation of the government-wide debarment rule where any provider excluded or suspended from CHAMPUS shall be excluded from all other programs and activities involving Federal financial assistance, such as Medicare or Medicaid; elimination of the requirement for non- participating providers to file claims; and revision of the ambulatory surgery cost-share information to enable the cost-share to be assessed against the facility claim instead of the primary surgeon's claim.