Skilled nursing facilities will receive a 3.7% increase in Medicare reimbursement in fiscal year 2024 under a proposed rule that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced Tuesday.
CMS also pledged that a controversial and long-awaited regulation that establishes minimum staffing rates at nursing homes will launch this spring. President Joe Biden announced that policy, along with other nursing home industry initiatives, during his State of the Union speech in 2022, but CMS has yet to act to implement it. that book. The nursing home industry strongly opposes federal staffing rates.
Nursing home payments proposal incorporates new market basket data, projects productivity gains and the impact of a mixed case classification system Patient-driven billing model that the agency has completed improvement in 2018.
CMS is also considering new measures for its skilled nursing facility value-based purchasing program, including data on staff turnover, patient functional status after discharge. , hospitalization rates for long-term nursing home residents and revised figures for readmissions.
The draft regulation will also make changes to the quality reporting program, including updated measures for the COVID-19 vaccination status of residents and employees.
Nursing home trade groups voiced support for enhanced federal payments.
“We appreciate that CMS has looked at the rising costs that nursing home providers are grappling with due to the labor crisis and record inflation in recent years. It is important for Medicare to respond. reflect the growing costs—including those set by the government—that nursing homes are facing ensuring our vulnerable residents can access the care they need We look forward to submitting comments to CMS on this proposed rule,” American Healthcare Association President and CEO Mark Parkinson said in a statement Tuesday. . AHCA represents more than 14,000 long-term care providers.
Separately, CMS has proposed a 1.9% increase in Medicare payments to inpatient psychiatric facilities in fiscal year 2024. That draft regulation includes provisions that would evaluate public efforts. by the health of those providers, such as the percentage of patients they screen for social determinants of health. The agency also recommends applying a measure of patient experience. The draft regulation that includes similar changes to tracking COVID-19 vaccinations for nursing homes and inpatient rehabilitation providers proposes rules for fiscal year 2024.
