Conclusion Hospitals will need to analyze carefully the financial impact of elections to waive coinsurance on an APC specific basis. An election will reduce payments from what would be payable under the OPPS, but may still result in greater payment than the hospital currently receives. The financial impact will need to be balanced against the marketing opportunities presented through advertisement of the discounts on services provided to Medicare patients. The advertising can be broad based or targeted to specific APCs. For example, a hospital could advertise reduced coinsurance relative only to a new program for which the hospital is attempting to generate greater volume.
Time is short.
Elections for calendar year 2001 are due to your fiscal intermediary by December 1, 2000.