A new rule proposal was issued from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services that would increase Medicare inpatient prospective payment system rates by a net 3.2 percent in FY 2020, compared to FY 2019, for hospitals that are meaningful users of electronic health records and submit quality measure data, reports the American Hospital Association. Additionally, the rule makes changes to Disproportionate Share Hospital payments, new technology payments, the area wage index and quality incentive programs, said the organization's summary.
For FY 2020, CMS wants to distribute approximately $8.49 billion in DSH payments -- $216 million more than this year. Also new, AHA explained, is that CMS would determine the distribution of uncompensated care data based on one year, rather than the average three years of data it has used previously.
Other plans include:
· increasing the marginal rate of the new technology add-on payment, including for CAR-T therapies, from 50 percent to 65 percent
· increasing the wage index for hospitals with a wage index value below the 25th percentile
· decreasing the wage index for hospitals with values above the 75th percentile to make this policy budget neutral
· making several updates to its hospital quality incentive programs, including three new electronic clinical quality measures to the inpatient quality reporting program with two opioid-related measures and a hybrid hospital-wide all-cause readmission measures
In a news release, AHA Executive President Tom Nickels, said “Based on our initial review, we are pleased that the agency has increased the new technology add-on payment rate, including for CAR-T therapies. Hospitals and health systems have been taking on this financial burden to ensure access to these life-saving treatments for patients, and while this proposal is not a permanent solution, it will help in the short-term. In addition, we are strongly supportive of the proposed 90-day reporting period for attestation for the Promoting Interoperability Programs, a move that will reduce regulatory burden on hospitals.”
CMS is accepting comments on the proposed rule until June 24, 2019.
