Skilled nursing providers and inpatient rehab facilities offer clashing views on Medicare payments

Despite efforts from provider groups and lawmakers to delay Phase 2 of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Requirements of Participation, the new survey process is expected to take effect Tuesday.

Provider advocates, including more than 100 members of the House of Representatives, urged CMS to rethink the deadline. They cited the costs of complying with the new requirements, as well as the possibility that the new rules could “have the opposite effect and direct resources away from the quality care our patients deserve.”

Despite the deadline still being firmly in place as of press time, providers will get a delay on monetary penalties on the new guidelines for one year, CMS said in July.

But providers still are focused on new infection prevention and antibiotic stewardship guidelines, which require providers to have a stewardship program in place.

They will have slightly longer to prepare for Phase 3, which will begin Nov. 28, 2019.