The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is proposing to increase Medicare inpatient psychiatric facility (IPF) payments by $75 million – a 1.7% boost – in fiscal year (FY) 2020. Specifically, CMS proposes a net market basket update of 1.85%, reflecting a 3.1% market basket update reduced by two statutory reductions. CMS estimates that payments will be further reduced by 0.15 percentage points due to a proposed outlier fixed-dollar loss threshold adjustment. If finalized, the IPF prospective payment system (PPS) federal per diem base rate would increase from $782.78 in FY 2019 to $803.48 in FY 2020 (with a $787.70 per diem base rate for providers who fail to report quality data).
Other proposed provisions include: rebasing the IPF market basket using a 2016 base year (instead of 2012) base year; the addition of a new medication continuation measure for the FY 2021 payment determination; and elimination of the current one-year lag in wage index data. CMS will accept comments on the proposed rule until June 17, 2019.
This article is presented for informational purposes only and is not intended to constitute legal advice.
