News Alert: CMS Release Proposed Rule for IPPS

CMS says the proposed rule is intended to enhance medical workforce in rural and underserved communities.

 Long-awaited and eagerly anticipated the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published the proposed rule for inpatient and long-term care facilities. As in two recently proposed rule, the posting yesterday is consistent with the Biden Administration’s key priorities to “close health care equity gaps” while providing greater accessibility to care.

According to a CMS news release posted late Tuesday, CMS wrote that provisions in the proposed rule would fund medical residency positions in hospitals in rural and underserved communities to address workforce shortages and require hospitals to report COVID-19 vaccination rates among their workers to contain the spread of the virus.

CMS said the rule also proposes to implement section 9831 of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 to permanently reinstate the imputed floor-wage-index for all-urban States for FY 2022.

“Additionally, the rule proposes to update Medicare Fee-for-Service payment rates and policies for acute care inpatient hospitals and long-term care hospitals for fiscal year 2022,” CMS wrote, adding, “CMS estimates total Medicare spending on acute care inpatient hospital services will increase by about $2.5 billion in fiscal year 2022.”

Watch this space for additional information on this developing story on RACmonitor and ICD10monitor as well as Monitor Mondays and Talk Ten Tuesdays—the live Internet broadcast produced by RACmonitor and ICD10monitor respectively.