The CMS finalized a regulation Friday that includes a small bump in Medicare reimbursement for outpatient services next year, as well as policies to implement site-neutral payments and increase price transparency.

The agency will increase pay for outpatient care by 2.6% in 2026 , including a 3.3% hospital market basket bump reduced by a 0.7 percentage point productivity adjustment. That’s slightly higher than the 2.4% initially proposed by the CMS this summer.

The rule also includes changes that require hospitals to post more information about their prices in a bid to improve cost transparency for patients. Plus, it moves to expand new site-neutral policies, where hospital outpatient departments are paid at the same level as physician offices.

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