(1) Outpatient hospital or birthing center services that are not provided by exempt hospitals or critical access hospitals as defined in ARM 37.86.2901(4) and (8) will be reimbursed on a rate-per-service basis using the Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) schedules. Under this system, Medicaid payment for outpatient services included in the OPPS is made at a predetermined, specific rate. These outpatient services are classified according to a list of APCs published annually in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). The rates for OPPS are determined as follows:

(a) The department uses a conversion factor for each APC group as defined at ARM 37.86.3001(5). The conversion factor for August 1, 2003 through September 30, 2007 is $47.75. The conversion factor for October 1, 2007 through June 30, 2008 is $49.71. The conversion factor for services on or after July 1, 2008 is $50.61. The APC based fee equals the Medicare specific relative weight for the APC times the conversion factor that is the same for all APCs with the exceptions of services in ARM 37.86.3025. APCs are based on classification assignment of CPT/HCPCS codes.

(b) At the claim level, payment will be the lower of the provider's charge and the payment as calculated using OPPS. There will be no charge cap at the line level.

(c) APCs are an all inclusive bundled payment per visit which covers all outpatient services provided to the patient, including but not limited to nursing, pharmacy, laboratory, imaging services, other diagnostic services, supplies and equipment, and other outpatient services. For purposes of OPPS, a visit includes all outpatient hospital or birthing center services related or incident to the outpatient visit that are provided the day before or the day of the outpatient visit.

(d) If two or more surgical procedures are performed at the same hospital on the same patient on the same day, payment for the most expensive procedure will be made at 100% of the APC for that service and payment for all other procedures will be made at 50% of the APC for those services.

(e) If the OPPS does not assign a Medicare fee or APC for a particular procedure code, a Medicaid fee will be assigned in accordance with the resource based relative value scale (RBRVS) methodology found at ARM 37.85.212. If there is not a Medicaid fee, the service will be reimbursed at hospital specific outpatient cost to charge ratio as in ARM 37.86.2803. Birthing centers will be reimbursed the statewide outpatient cost to charge ratio.

(f) The department will make separate payment for observation care procedure codes only if the patient has a primary diagnosis code of asthma, chest pain, congestive heart failure, or obstetric complications. If an observation service does not meet Medicare's criteria for these services, payment for observation care will be considered bundled into the APC for other services.

(i) The diagnosis used to define a potential obstetric qualification will be taken from diagnosis related groups 382 (false labor) and 383 (other antepartum diagnosis with medical complications).

(g) The department follows Medicare guidelines for procedures defined as "inpatient only". When these procedures are performed in the outpatient hospital or birthing center setting, the claim will be denied.

(h) Procedures started on patients but discontinued before completion will be reimbursed at 50% of the APC for those services.

(2) The department adopts and incorporates by reference the OPPS Schedules published by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in 71 Federal Register 226, November 24, 2006, effective January 1, 2007. A copy may be obtained through the Department of Public Health and Human Services, Health Resources Division, 1400 Broadway, P.O. Box 202951, Helena, MT 59620-2951.