January 19, 2001
HCFA Publishes Two Medicare Teaching Payment Rules
The Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) Jan. 12 published a final rule on Medicare payments for the costs of nursing and allied health education [66 Federal Register 3357]. Under Medicare, approved nursing and allied health education programs operated by hospitals are paid on a reasonable cost basis. In general, a hospital may receive reasonable cost payments if the provider directly incurs the training costs, controls the curriculum and the administration of the program, employs the teaching staff, and provides and controls both clinical training and classroom instruction (where applicable) of a nursing or allied health education program.
Because the rule, which is effective March 13, 2001, "clarifies and restates payment policies previously established in the Provider Reimbursement Manual and other documents, but never specifically addressed in regulations," HCFA anticipates that it will have no impact on those providers that operate their own nursing and allied health education programs.
Within the same document, HCFA also published a proposed rule that would permit providers to receive Medicare pass-through reasonable cost payments for the costs incurred by a provider for the clinical training of students enrolled in a clinical psychology training program. To qualify for payments, the hospital would have to directly incur the clinical training costs, have direct control of the clinical training curriculum, control the administration of the clinical training, and employ the teaching staff. Comments on the proposed rule are due March 13, 2001.
Information: Ivy Baer, 202-828-0499, and Karen Fisher, 202-862-6140, AAMC Division of Health Care Affairs.
