On April 30, 2015, CMS published a proposed rule outlining FY 2016 Medicare payment rates for Acute Care Hospital and Long-Term Care Hospitals. This Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) rule:
- Continues to implement ACA-mandated Medicare Disproportionate Share Hospital reductions, reducing payments by $1.3 billion compared to FY 2015
- Indicates that CMS is considering feedback regarding its Two Midnights policy and expects to address the issue in the CY 2016 Outpatient PPS proposed rule
- Adds eight measures in the Inpatient Quality Reporting (IQR) program and removes nine, with some shifting to electronic submission
- Updates the Hospital-Acquired Conditions Reduction Program, the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program and the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing Program
- Requests comments on policy and operational issues surrounding expanding the Bundled Payments for Care Improvement initiative
- Implements the site-neutral payment rates for long-term care hospitals (LTCHs) mandated by the Pathway for SGR Reform Act of 2013 (P.L. 113-67). CMS projects that this payment change would decrease total LTCH payments by 4.6% or $250 million in FY 2016
- Continues phased documentation and coding payment recoupment mandated by the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 by making another -0.8% adjustment
Public comments will be accepted until June 16, 2015.* For further info and supporting data, visit the Medicare FY 2016 IPPS proposed rule homepage.
*When originally published, the deadline was June 29, 2015; however, a correction published on May 5, 2015 changed the due date to June 16, 2015, although this deadline has not yet been updated on Regulations.gov.
