Ambulatory Payment Classifications

Acronym: APC

Are the United States government's method of paying for facility outpatient services. A part of the Federal Balanced Budget Act of 1997 made the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services create a new Medicare "Outpatient Prospective Payment System" (OPPS) for hospital outpatient services -analogous to the Medicare Prospective Payment System for hospital inpatients known as Diagnosis-related groups or DRGs. This OPPS was implemented on August 1, 2000. APCs are an outpatient prospective payment system applicable only to hospitals. Physicians are reimbursed via other methodologies for payment in the United States, such as Current Procedural Terminology or CPTs.