The CMS Friday proposed updated Medicare payment rates and wage indices for hospices, skilled nursing facilities, and inpatient psychiatric facilities for fiscal year 2021.
The proposed rule for hospices would update the hospice wage index and payment rates, with a payment update percentage of 2.6%. It adopts the most recent Office of Management and Budget statistical area delineations, with a 5% cap on wage index decreases.
It makes the application of the updated wage data budget neutral for all four levels of hospice care.
The proposed rule for skilled nursing facilities includes proposals to make changes to the case-mix classification code mappings used under the SNF prospective payment system. It also includes proposals for the SNF value-based purchasing program.
The CMS said its proposed rule for inpatient psychiatric facilities better aligns payments for these facilities with the costs of providing care. The agency proposes a 2.6% payment rate update and adopts the latest OMB statistical area delineations to produce wage index values that are more representative of the actual costs of labor in a particular area.
In addition, the IPF proposed rule applies a two-year transition for all providers negatively impacted by wage index changes. These changes would be effective for IPF discharges from October 1, 2020 through September 30, 2021.
Public comments on all three proposed rules must be received by June 9, 2020.
