On April 23, 2019, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released the fiscal year (FY) 2020 proposed rule for payments to hospital inpatient departments and long-term care hospitals (LTCHs). The rule outlines proposed payment policy for hospitals and LTCHs beginning with October 1, 2019. Proposals related to new technology add-on payments, graduate medical education, [...] Read More
On April 22, 2019, the Medicare Board of Trustees released their annual report on the status of two separate trust funds, the Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund and the Supplementary Insurance (SMI) Trust Fund. The Boards of Trustee report annually on the financial operations and actuarial status of the program in a combined report that [...] Read More
On April 19, 2019, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the proposed rule for FY 2020 payment and quality program updates for skilled nursing facilities (SNFs). CMS estimates that Medicare payment to SNFs will increase by $887 million in FY 2020. The market basket update is to increase by 2.5 percent. SNFs [...] Read More
This evening, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the fiscal year (FY) 2020 payment rule for hospices. The proposed rule includes a payment increase of 2.7 percent for FY 2020 as a proposed change to the hospice election statement, and a request for information (RFI) on the role of hospice care. Comments [...] Read More
This evening Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the FY 2020 Inpatient Psychiatric Facilities Prospective Payment System (IPF PPS) and Quality Reporting Updates proposed rule. CMS proposes to update the IPF PPS market basket by 1.85 percent for FY 2020 and to rebase the IPF market basket to 2016 base year- stating that [...] Read More
On April 17, 2019, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the proposed FY 2020 inpatient rehabilitation facility payment rule. This proposed rule also includes updates to the IRF Quality Reporting Program (QRP). Comments on the proposed rule are due on June 17, 2019. IRFs Could See Payment Increase Of 2.5 Percent in [...] Read More
On April 5, 2019, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services released a final rule of administrative and technical changes to Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D. Many of the changes in this rule were mandated by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (BBA). Most of the provisions in this final rule will go into [...] Read More
On April 4-5, 2019, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) held the final meeting of the current cycle. The Commission voted on a recommendation related to encounter data in Medicare Advantage (MA) and coding for emergency departments. Other discussions centered around value-based payment and Part D drugs. The Commission will be releasing a report to [...] Read More
Today, President Trump released his FY 2020 budget proposal, including $1.313 trillion in discretionary proposals (a reduction of $24 billion from his FY 2019 proposal). On the healthcare front, the budget requests an additional $500 million in funding devoted to childhood cancer research, $291 million to eliminate most new HIV infections within 5 years and [...] Read More
CMS’ Office of the Actuary released a report this week on 2018-2027 projections of national health expenditures. Health care spending is expected to rise from 17.9% to 19.4% of gross domestic product (GDP), an annual rise of 5.5 %, in the next decade. CMS states that the key drivers for the rise in expenditures will [...] Read More