The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) August 2 released the Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) fiscal year (FY) 2018 final rule in which CMS finalized changes to the Medicare payment rate and policies update for FY 2018. The rule increases payment rates by 1.2 percent for FY 2018.
CMS finalized its proposal to begin incorporating uncompensated care cost data from Worksheet S-10 of the Medicare cost report. For FY 2018, CMS will use data from the FY 2014 Worksheet S-10 in combination with Medicare and Medicaid low income days data from the two preceding cost reporting periods to determine the distribution of uncompensated care payments. Based on these changes, CMS predicts Medicare disproportionate share hospital (DSH) payments for FY 2018 will increase by $800 million over the FY 2017 amounts.
CMS is implementing the socioeconomic payment adjustment factor in FY 2019 to the hospital readmissions reduction program (HRRP) mandated by the 21st Century Cures Act (P.L. 114-255). CMS will assess penalties based on a hospital’s performance relative to other hospitals with a similar proportion of patients who are dually eligible for Medicare and full-benefit Medicaid. CMS is also adopting a number of quality measure reporting requirements to the hospital-acquired conditions (HAC) reduction program.
In addition, CMS is finalizing changes to the 2018 electronic health records (EHR) reporting program to reduce the reporting period from a full year to any continuous 90-day period during the calendar year.
CMS released a fact sheet on the FY 2018 Medicare Inpatient Psychiatric Prospective Payment System notice with comment period.
The final rule is scheduled to be printed in the Federal Register on August 14.