Critical Path Network: CMS releases proposed rule on inpatient payments
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has released its proposed rule for inpatient Medicare payments for fiscal year 2004.
Among the key items in the nearly 1,000-page rule are the following.
- CMS has calculated the market basket’s increase in the cost of care to be 3.5% for FY 2004. However, due to budget neutrality and other adjustments, average payments to hospitals will rise only by 2.5%.
- The rule expands the post-acute care transfer policy to an additional 19 diagnosis-related groups. In an article by the on-line news service AHA News Now, the American Hospital Association states that the estimated loss to hospitals would be $160 million in FY 2004.
- The rule raises the outlier threshold for extremely high-cost cases to $50,645 from $33,560. AHA said it expects a separate outlier rule soon from CMS that will contain adjustments expected to reduce that threshold.
To see the rule, go to: http://cms.hhs.gov.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has released its proposed rule for inpatient Medicare payments for fiscal year 2004.Article Limit Reached
You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
- Award-winning Medical Content
- Latest Advances & Development in Medicine
- Unbiased Content