Medicare reduces payments for interventional procedures in single- and multi-specialty surgery centers each year, and Medicare has been trying to eliminate interventional procedures from the ASC-approved list since 1998.

Commercial payers follow the Medicare trend, denying payment for interventional procedures not on the Medicare ASC-approved list. Consequently, they want to pay only a percent of Medicare reimbursements which in some cases could be lower than the Medicare reimbursement.

Medicare payments now may be based on inconsistent hospital outpatient department(HOPD) payment rules and local medical review policies.