Articles and Blogs

On October 3, 2024, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) published an interim final rule that eliminated the low wage index hospital policy and related budget neutrality adjustments. This action was prompted by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision to vacate the policy in Bridgeport Hospital v Becerra (“Bridgeport“) concluding that the... READ MORE

On August 1, 2023, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) issued its Final Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System (“IPPS”) and Long-Term Care Hospital (“LTCH”) PPS rule for fiscal year (“FY”) 2024 (“Final Rule”). The Final Rule increases the rate for IPPS payments by 3.3% in FY 2024 but applies a 0.2% productivity... READ MORE

The FFY 2022 IPPS Proposed Rule (“Proposed Rule”) was released on April 27, 2021, and CMS published the associated tables on its website. In addition, the Proposed Rule is expected to be published in the Federal Register on May 10. The release of the Proposed Rule and the accompanying tables triggers the start of... READ MORE

On May 8, 2020, CMS released the FY 2022 Hospital Wage Index Development Timetable. The timetable indicates that the preliminary FY 2022 Worksheet S-3, Parts II and III wage index Public Use File (“PUF”) will be released on May 18, 2020. The PUF will contain wage data based on FFY 2018 hospital cost reports... READ MORE

On May 11, 2020, CMS released the 2021 Inpatient Prospective Payment System (“IPPS”) Proposed Rule (“Proposed Rule”). Among other changes in the Proposed Rule, CMS is adopting updated labor market area delineations to take effect on October 1, 2020. Hospitals should review whether they are in a county that is affected by the updated... READ MORE

On February 11, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (D.C.) Circuit upheld the decision of a lower court granting summary judgment in favor of the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (“HHS”) in a wage index calculation Medicare reimbursement case. The Court held that the Secretary’s... READ MORE

On August 16, 2019, the Federal Fiscal Year (“FFY”) 2020 Medicare Inpatient Prospective Payment System (“IPPS”) final rule (“IPPS Final Rule”) was published in the Federal Register. In the IPPS Final Rule, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) finalized several changes announced in the proposed rule, including several changes to address disparities between high... READ MORE

On May 17, 2019, CMS released the preliminary FY 2021 Worksheet S-3, Parts II and III wage index Public Use File (“PUF”). The PUF contains wage data based on FFY 2017 hospital cost reports – that is, cost reports with fiscal year begin dates of on or after October 1, 2016 and on or before September 30, 2017. The... READ MORE

On April 23, 2019, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) released the Federal Fiscal Year (“FFY”) 2020 Medicare Inpatient Prospective Payment System (“IPPS”) proposed rule (“IPPS Proposed Rule”). Among many other changes, CMS proposed several changes to address disparities between high and low wage index areas and fixing the so-called “rural floor.”... READ MORE

The FFY 2019 IPPS Proposed Rule (“Proposed Rule”) was released on April 24, 2018, and CMS published the associated tables on its website. It is expected that the Proposed Rule will be published in the Federal Register on May 7. The release of the Proposed Rule and the accompanying tables triggers the start to... READ MORE