Medicare 2024 hospital inpatient PPS rule provides 2.8% elevate
Hospitals complying with high quality reporting guidelines and the digital well being data meaningful-use coverage would get a 2.8% web enhance in Medicare reimbursements in fiscal 2024 below the hospital inpatient potential fee system proposed rule the Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Companies printed Monday.
Hospital inpatient charges for the approaching fiscal yr are the results of a 3% market basket enhance minus a 0.2 share level discount based mostly on projected productiveness enhancements. Services penalized for extra readmissions or hospital-acquired situations would obtain decrease reimbursements, whereas members within the value-based buying program would see their charges adjusted upward or downward based mostly on efficiency.
Below the proposed rule, CMS would keep the low-wage hospital coverage that caps wage index decreases at 5%. CMS is utilizing fiscal 2019 information to calculate the fiscal 2024 wage index till extra information turn into obtainable.
Hospital teams protested that CMS’ proposals are unrealistic amid a difficult financial atmosphere.
“The [American Hospital Association] is deeply involved with CMS’ woefully insufficient proposed inpatient hospital fee replace of two.8% given the close to decades-high inflation and elevated prices for labor, tools, medication and provides. Furthermore, long-term care hospitals would see a staggering adverse 2.5% fee replace below this proposal. These inadequate changes are merely unsustainable,” Ashley Thompson, senior vp for public coverage evaluation and growth, mentioned in a information launch.
“This IPPS proposed inflationary fee replace is disappointing,” Federation of American Hospitals President and CEO Chip Kahn mentioned in a information launch. “It fails to acknowledge right this moment’s headwinds that can pressure the well being security web in 2024, which is able to additional threaten sufferers’ entry to care as hospitals are pressured to cut back providers or in some circumstances, particularly rural areas, shut fully.”
Security and fairness
The draft regulation additionally seeks to additional CMS’ efforts to deal with affected person security and well being fairness by way of the fee system. “This proposed rule displays our person-centric strategy to raised measure healthcare high quality and security in hospitals to cut back preventable hurt and our dedication to make sure that folks with Medicare in rural and underserved areas have improved entry to high-quality healthcare,” CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure mentioned in a information launch.
CMS proposes three new high quality reporting measures: stress accidents; acute kidney accidents; and extreme radiation publicity. The company additionally intends to change three high quality measures: hybrid all-cause threat standardized mortality; hybrid hospital-wide all-cause readmission; and COVID-19 vaccinations of healthcare personnel. And CMS proposes scrapping three measures: hospital-level risk-standardized complication fee following elective major whole hip arthroplasty and/or whole knee arthroplasty; Medicare spending per beneficiary; and elective supply previous to 39 accomplished weeks’ gestation.
The inpatient potential fee system proposed rule for fiscal 2024 additionally seeks to advance CMS’ well being fairness agenda. The company proposes including 15 equity-related measures on which to gather information. The draft regulation additionally would enhance the severity measures for homelessness as a complication or comorbidity.
Lengthy-term care hospitals
The identical draft regulation consists of proposed potential fee system updates for long-term care hospitals. The usual fee would rise 2.9% in fiscal 2024, whereas dual-rate funds would lower 0.9%.
Alex Kacik and Lauren Berryman contributed to this story.