Medicare 2024 hospital inpatient PPS rule provides 2.8% elevate

Hospitals complying with high quality reporting guidelines and the digital well being information meaningful-use coverage would get a 2.8% web enhance in Medicare reimbursements in fiscal 2024 underneath the hospital inpatient potential fee system proposed rule the Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Companies revealed 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 primarily based on projected productiveness enhancements. Services penalized for extra readmissions or hospital-acquired situations would obtain decrease reimbursements, whereas contributors within the value-based buying program would see their charges adjusted upward or downward primarily based on efficiency.

Underneath 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 out to be out there.

Hospital teams protested that CMS’ proposals are unrealistic amid a difficult financial setting.

“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, medicine and provides. Furthermore, long-term care hospitals would see a staggering unfavourable 2.5% fee replace underneath this proposal. These inadequate changes are merely unsustainable,” Ashley Thompson, senior vp for public coverage evaluation and growth, stated in a information launch.

“This IPPS proposed inflationary fee replace is disappointing,” Federation of American Hospitals President and CEO Chip Kahn stated in a information launch. “It fails to acknowledge immediately’s headwinds that may pressure the well being security web in 2024, which is able to additional threaten sufferers’ entry to care as hospitals are pressured to scale back companies or in some instances, particularly rural areas, shut utterly.”

Security and fairness

The draft regulation additionally seeks to additional CMS’ efforts to deal with affected person security and well being fairness by means of the fee system. “This proposed rule displays our person-centric method to higher measure healthcare high quality and security in hospitals to scale back preventable hurt and our dedication to make sure that individuals with Medicare in rural and underserved areas have improved entry to high-quality healthcare,” CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure stated in a information launch.

CMS proposes three new high quality reporting measures: strain accidents; acute kidney accidents; and extreme radiation publicity. The company additionally intends to switch 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 price following elective main complete hip arthroplasty and/or complete 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.