CMS released the 2026 Outpatient Prospective Payment System (OPPS) and Ambulatory Surgical Center (ASC) Payment System final rule, which finalized many of the proposed policies, such as:

• Increasing payment by 2.6% for hospitals and ASCs that meet relevant quality reporting requirements
• Eliminating the inpatient only (IPO) list over a 3-year period, beginning with the removal of mostly musculoskeletal procedures for CY 2026
• Revising the ASC covered procedure list (CPL) criteria, which results in hundreds of new procedures being added to the ASC CPL
• Updating skin substitute reimbursement policies to align with skin substitution categorization consistent with the FDA, and establishing a single payment rate for CY 2026
• Creating stricter price transparency requirements