Providers roundly criticized the federal government’s “heartless” proposal to decrease pay for skilled nursing facilities by $320 million in fiscal 2023. 

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in April announced plans to cut nursing home Medicare payment rates by 4.6% in the next fiscal year to account for unintentional overpayments in the transition to the Patient Driven Payment Model. 

That $1.7 billion decrease will translate to a net $320 million annual decrease after accounting for a market basket increase and other factors, officials explained in releasing the proposed 2023 Skilled Nursing Facilities Prospective Payment System rule.

“To do this during a pandemic is actually heartless,” Rick Matros, president and CEO of Sabra Health Care REIT, told McKnight’s when news broke. “We were comfortable with them spreading it out and thought that would be the case.”