Final rule - Clarification of Outpatient Hospital Facility Services Definition

SUMMARY: Outpatient hospital services are a mandatory part of the standard Medicaid benefit package. This final rule aligns the Medicaid definition of outpatient hospital services more closely to the Medicare definition in order to: Improve the functionality of the applicable upper payment limits (which are based on a comparison to Medicare payments for the same services), provide more transparency in determining available hospital coverage in any State, and generally clarify the scope of services for which Federal financial participation (FFP) is available under the outpatient hospital services benefit category.

Effective Date: These regulations are effective December 8, 2008.