Inpatient rehabilitation facilities and inpatient psychiatric facilities will see a bump in Medicare payments next fiscal year.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued two final rules Wednesday updating payment rates and quality reporting programs for the two provider types. The changes are effective for discharges beginning Oct. 1, 2023, and lasting through Sept. 30, 2024.
The agency finalized a 4% per-discharge payment rate increase for inpatient rehabilitation facilities, which amounts to an estimated $355 million jump from fiscal 2023. CMS modified the payment rate using updated 2021 market basket data. The agency said inpatient rehabilitation facilities that do not meet the requirements of the quality reporting program for a fiscal year will receive a 2-percentage-point reduction to the market basket update for that year.
CMS initially proposed a 3% pay boost for inpatient rehabilitation providers in an April draft regulation.
CMS also updated its inpatient rehabilitation facility quality reporting program for fiscal 2025 and 2026, including by adding changes to encourage COVID-19 vaccinations among healthcare workers and patients.
In a separate rule, CMS finalized a 3.3% pay boost for inpatient psychiatric providers for fiscal 2024, or about $70 million in overall increased payments. The agency originally proposed a 1.9% increase when it issued a draft regulation in April.
The rule raises the federal per-diem base rate from $865.63 to $895.63. It also updates the per-treatment electroconvulsive therapy payment from $372.67 to $385.58. Providers who fail to report quality data as required will see less reimbursement in both cases.
Inpatient psychiatric facilities include psychiatric hospitals and excluded psychiatric units of acute-care or critical-access hospitals. As part of Thursday's rule, CMS is modifying regulations to make it easier for hospitals to open new excluded psychiatric units paid under the inpatient psychiatric facility prospective payment system. It is also finalizing new proposed measures for the quality reporting program to include the adoption of the psychiatric inpatient experience survey, screening processes for social drivers of health and the promotion of health equity.
