CMS rebuilding adds 2.4% Medicare hike

Skilled nursing providers will get a 2.4% Medicare pay raise Oct. 1 — far more than expected — and a simplified new resident classification system, much to their relief.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services unveiled both moves in a blockbuster announcement April 27.

The market basket adjustment will mean a cumulative pay raise of about $850 million, starting Oct. 1.

The newly proposed Patient Driven Payment Model (PDPM) would start in 2019 and simplify RCS-1, which was floated for comment in March 2017.

“Great improvement” is how Cynthia Morton, executive vice president of the National Association for the Support of Long-Term Care, described PDPM.

Comments are being collected until June 26 on the new proposal, which may lighten therapist demand but was generally well received by provider analysts.