CMS wants to boost Medicare payments for inpatient rehabilitation facilities by 2.2% and inpatient psychiatric facilities by 2.3% next year, the agency said Wednesday.
According to CMS, the changes would increase federal spending on inpatient rehab by $160 million compared to 2021. Likewise, federal spending on inpatient psychiatric facilities would go up by about $90 million.
Regulators plan to require inpatient rehabilitation and psychiatric facilities to report COVID-19 vaccine coverage among their healthcare personnel.
"This proposed measure is designed to assess whether IRFs are taking steps to limit the spread of COVID-19 among their HCP, reduce the risk of transmission within their facilities, and help sustain the ability of IRFs to continue serving their communities through the public health emergency and beyond," according to a CMS fact sheet.
The agency is also seeking comment on two requests for information addressing health equity and the adoption of Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standards in support of digital quality measurement in post-acute care quality reporting programs.
"CMS is committed to addressing the significant and persistent inequities in health outcomes in the United States through improving data collection to better measure and analyze disparities across programs and policies," the agency said in a fact sheet.
It also plans to change the inpatient psychiatric facility teaching policy to ensure that residents won't be displaced if their teaching hospital or program closes, preventing them from getting board-certified.
Regulators also seek feedback on how to include health equity in its quality reporting for inpatient psychiatric facilities.
"Specifically, CMS is requesting comment on future potential stratification of quality measure results by dual eligibility and other social risk factors in facility-specific reports, ways to improve demographic data collection and the potential creation of a facility equity score to synthesize results across multiple measures and social risk factors," according to a CMS fact sheet.
