On July 30 and 31, 2015, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS or the agency) made publicly-available pre-publication copies of the inpatient rehabilitation facilities, inpatient psychiatric facilities, skilled nursing facilities, and hospice wage index and payment rate update and hospice quality reporting requirements FY 2016 final rules.
The inpatient rehabilitation facility (IRF) final rule increases IRF prospective payment system (PPS) payment rates by 1.8 percent compared to FY 2015. The final rule does not make any changes in facility-level adjustments. In the final rule, CMS finalizes the IRF-specific market basket to replace the Rehabilitation, Psychiatric and Long-Term Care market basket. The agency estimates the FY 2016 IRF-specific market basket increase to be 2.4 percent and the labor-related share to be 71.0 percent. The final rule incorporates the Office of Management and Budget’s most recent delineations regarding Metropolitan Statistical Areas, Micropolitan Statistical Areas, and Combined Statistical Areas. CMS is implementing these changes using a one-year transition with a 50/50 blended wage index for all providers. The final rule also includes certain changes to the IRF Quality Reporting Program. The final rule will be published in the August 6, 2015 Federal Register and will be effective October 1, 2015. A pre-publication copy of the final rule is available here.
The FY 2016 inpatient psychiatric facility (IPF) final rule includes a 1.5 percent payment increase under the IPF PPS and updates the IPF Quality Reporting Program. The final rule will be published in the August 5, 2015 Federal Register. A pre-publication copy of the final rule is available here.
The FY 2016 skilled nursing facility (SNF) final rule includes a 1.2 percent increase in SNF PPS payments and describes the SNF Quality Reporting Program required by Congress in the Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation Act of 2014 to be implemented in FY 2018. The final rule also adopts the Skilled Nursing Facility 30-Day All-Cause Readmission Measure as the all-cause, all-condition measure to be used in the SNF Value-Based Purchasing Program. The final rule will be published in the August 4 Federal Register. A pre-publication copy of the final rule is available here.
The FY 2016 hospice payment rate update final rule includes a 1.1 percent increase in payments and implements different payment rates for routine home care for the first 60 days of hospice care and a reduced payment rate for 61 or more days of hospice care. A pre-publication copy of the final rule is available here.
