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On January 22, 2016, CMS published a rule providing additional explanation of certain methodological choices CMS made in establishing the fiscal year 2004 Medicare Inpatient Prospective Payment System fixed-loss threshold determination, in accordance with court rulings in cases that challenge this methodology.

CMS has published a notice with comment period describing its rationale for reducing Medicare inpatient prospective payment systems (IPPS) rates by 0.2% in FY 2014 to offset a projected $220 million increase in IPPS spending as a result of adoption of CMS’s “2-midnight” admission policy. The December 1, 2015 notice was issued in response to…

 CMS is holding a town hall meeting on February 16, 2016 to discuss fiscal year (FY) 2017 applications for add-on payments for new medical services and technologies under the Medicare IPPS. Interested parties will have an opportunity to present comments and data regarding whether the FY 2017 new medical services and technologies applications meet the…

CMS has released corrections to a number of fiscal year (FY) 2016 final Medicare payment rules. Specifically, on October 5, 2015, CMS is publishing corrections to:

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On July 31, 2015, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released a major final rule to update the Medicare acute hospital inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS) and the long-term care hospital prospective payment system (LTCH PPS) for fiscal year (FY) 2016. The official version of the rule will be published in the Federal Register on August 17, 2015, and generally applies to discharges occurring on or after October 1, 2015. With regard to the IPPS, CMS projects that the rate and policy changes in the final rule will increase IPPS operating payments by approximately 0.4%, or about $378 million in FY 2016. The rule provide a 0.9% operating payment rate update for hospitals that submit quality data and are meaningful users of Electronic Health Records (EHR). This update reflects a 2.4% market basket update, adjusted by a -0.5 percentage point multi-factor productivity (MFP) cut and an additional -0.2 percentage point cut (as mandated by the Affordable Care Act, or ACA), with an additional -0.8 percentage point documentation and coding recoupment adjustment required by the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012.
Continue Reading CMS Issues Final FY 2016 Medicare IPPS/LTCH Rule

Despite the recent flurry of activity on Medicare payment rules, more are in the pipeline. CMS has sent the final fiscal year (FY) 2016 Medicare skilled nursing facility, hospice, inpatient rehabilitation facility, and inpatient psychiatric facility payment rules to the White House Office of Management and Budget for final regulatory clearance. The FY 2016 final…

CMS has released detailed Medicare inpatient hospital, outpatient hospital, and physician utilization and payment data for 2013, including data analysis such as spending breakdowns by specialty and region. The hospital data set includes average hospital charges, Medicare payment, and utilization statistics for the 100 most common Medicare inpatient diagnosis related groups (DRGs). CMS also released…

CMS has published a correction notice that clarifies that the comment deadline for the FY 2016 Medicare inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS) and long-term care hospital (LTCH) PPS proposed rule is June 16, 2015 (as the agency announced when the rule was released). The version of the rule published in the Federal Register on April…

On April 30, 2015, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is publishing its proposed rule to update the Medicare acute hospital inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS) and long-term care hospital (LTCH) prospective payment system (PPS) for fiscal year (FY) 2016.  CMS will accept comments on the proposed rule until June 16, 2015. The final rule will be published by August 1, 2015, and generally will apply to discharges occurring on or after October 1, 2015.

With regard to the IPPS, CMS projects that the rate and policy changes in the proposed rule would increase IPPS operating payments by approximately 0.3%, or about $120 million in FY 2016. The proposed rule would provide for a 1.1% operating payment rate update for hospitals that submit quality data and are meaningful users of Electronic Health Records (EHR). This update reflects a 2.7% market basket update, adjusted by a -0.6 percentage point multi-factor productivity (MFP) cut and an additional -0.2 percentage point cut (as mandated by the Affordable Care Act, or ACA), with an additional -0.8 percentage point documentation and coding recoupment adjustment required by the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012.Continue Reading CMS Issues Proposed Rule to Update FY 2016 IPPS, LTCH PPS Rates, Policies

CMS recently sent several major proposed rules to the White House Office of Management and Budget for regulatory clearance – the last step before publication in the Federal Register. OMB is reviewing proposed rules to update the skilled nursing facility, inpatient rehabilitation facility, and inpatient psychiatric facility prospective payment systems (PPS) for fiscal year (FY)…

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) has released its annual recommendations to Congress on Medicare policies, including Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) payment updates and a status report on the Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D programs. The following are highlights of the recommendations for 2016 (many of which were recommended previously):
Continue Reading MedPAC Report to Congress on Medicare Policy

On November 21, 2014, CMS is publishing a notice announcing that it will be holding a town hall meeting on February 3, 2015 to discuss fiscal year (FY) 2016 applications for add-on payments for new medical services and technologies under the Medicare hospital inpatient prospective payment system. Interested parties will have an opportunity to present…

CMS has published corrections to its August 22, 2014 final update to the Medicare Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) and the Long-Term Care Hospital Prospective Payment System for FY 2015. Among other things, CMS made technical errors in its calculation of the operating and capital IPPS budget neutrality factors, outlier threshold, operating standardized amounts,…

On August 22, 2014, CMS is publishing a final rule to update the Medicare acute hospital inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS) and long-term care hospital (LTCH) prospective payment system (PPS) for fiscal year (FY) 2015, which begins October 1, 2014.  The following are highlights of the sweeping regulations.Continue Reading CMS Finalizes Medicare IPPS/LTCH PPS Update for FY 2015

On June 17, 2014, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published a notice making changes to the Medicare payment adjustment for low-volume hospitals and to the Medicare-dependent hospital (MDH) program under the inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS). The adjustments, which were mandated by the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014, apply to…

Late on April 30, 2014, CMS released the advance text of its proposed rule to update the Medicare acute hospital inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS) and long-term care hospital (LTCH) prospective payment system (PPS) for fiscal year (FY) 2015.

With regard to IPPS hospitals, the rule would provide for a 1.3% operating payment rate update…

CMS has sent several major fiscal year (FY) 2015 Medicare payment rules to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for final regulatory clearance. Proposed rules under OMB consideration would update rates and policies for FY 2015 for the following Medicare payment systems: the acute hospital inpatient prospective payment system (PPS), the long-term…

 On February 4, 2014, CMS will host a follow-up Special Open Door Forum call on the two-midnight benchmark for inpatient hospital admissions included in the FY Medicare inpatient prospective payment system final rule. The call will provide an opportunity allow hospitals, practitioners, and other interested parties to ask questions on the physician order and physician…