Transitional outpatient payments (TOPS)
When the OPPS (outpatient prospective payment) was implemented, every provider was eligible to receive an additional payment adjustment (transitional corridor payment) if the payments it received for covered OPD services under the OPPS were less than the payments it would have received for the same services under the prior reasonable cost-based system. Transitional corridor payments are temporary payments for most providers to ease their transition from the prior reasonable cost-based payment system to the OPPS system. Cancer hospitals and children’s hospitals, however, receive the transitional corridor payments on a permanent basis. See Outpatient PPS False Claim in this Glossary.