Medicare's quality reporting program for ASCs takes effect on October 1, 2012, but ASCs can begin voluntarily noting the specified measures on their claims as of this Sunday, April 1.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued a transmittal this week detailing the G-codes that are to be used in complying with the quality reporting requirement. The Outpatient Ophthalmic Surgery Society has included the G-code list on a recent press release.

The G-codes provide classifications with which ASCs can document whether patients suffered falls, burns, hospital transfers, wrong-site surgeries or improperly timed antibiotic administrations, or whether their care was free of these quality errors. Beginning in 2014, the omission of these codes from Medicare claims will result in reimbursement reductions.

David Bernard