On August 2, 2021, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued the final rule for fiscal year (FY) 2022 Medicare Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) and Long-Term Care Hospital (LTCH) Prospective Payment System (PPS). The final rule updates Medicare payment policies and rates for operating and capital-related costs of acute care hospitals and for certain hospitals and hospital units excluded from the IPPS for FY 2022. Overall, CMS estimates hospitals payments will increase by $2.3 billion.
The policies in this IPPS and LTCH PPS final rule build on key priorities to close healthcare equity gaps and support greater access to life-saving diagnostics and therapies during the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) and beyond. The rule’s provisions seek to sustain hospital readiness to respond to future public health threats, enhance the health care workforce in rural and underserved communities, and revise scoring, payment and public quality data reporting methods to lessen the adverse impacts of the pandemic and future unplanned events.
The final rule updates Medicare fee-for-service payment rates and policies for inpatient hospitals and long-term care hospitals for FY 2022. The FY 2022 IPPS and LTCH PPS final rule will be issued in multiple parts.
CMS will establish new requirements and revise existing requirements for the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) Program, Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program, Hospital- Acquired Condition (HAC) Reduction Program, Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting (IQR) Program, LTCH Quality Reporting Program, PPS-Exempt Cancer Hospital Reporting (PCHQR) Program, and the Medicare Promoting Interoperability Program.
