CMS has released corrections to two major fiscal year (FY) 2018 Medicare payment rules. First, CMS has made numerous technical corrections to the FY 2018 inpatient prospective payment systems (IPPS) and long term care hospital (LTCH) prospective payment system (PPS) final rule. CMS has corrected MS-DRG and MS-LTCH-DRG relative weights, budget neutrality adjustment factors, fixed-loss amounts, wage indexes, national operating standardized amounts, capital federal rate, LTCH PPS standard federal payment rate, uncompensated care payment calculations, and quality measures, among many other things. Furthermore, CMS is updating various tables that accompanied the final rule, and it is making corrections to the logic for the ICD-10 MS-DRG Grouper Version 35 Software.
Second, CMS has corrected the FY 2018 skilled nursing facility (SNF) prospective payment system (PPS) final rule to address a number of technical issues. Among other things, CMS is correcting wage indexes, the wage index budget neutrality factor, and SNF PPS rates. The corresponding SNF wage index tables have been updated on the CMS website.