The federal government’s second-year Medicare payment system for nursing homes continues to be a boon for them, especially under pandemic conditions, but more than half are missing rightful reimbursements.
The effectiveness of the federal government’s move to extend the repayment terms for providers who received advanced Medicare payments during the pandemic will depend “how quickly the industry and entities most impacted are able to rebound,” one expert predicted.
Medicare payments could be adjusted to reflect how hospice services tend to be more intensive at the beginning and end, according to findings recently published by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Office of Information Products & Data Analytics.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently finalized 2014 Medicare rate updates for hospices and inpatient rehabilitation facilities, and also laid out quality metrics. Hospices will receive a Medicare payment rate increase of 1.7%, which represents about $160 million in additional payments for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1, according to the rule published in today’s Federal Register.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services should consider a higher market basket update for nursing homes due to improper calculations that could be costing providers, the American Health Care Association maintains.
States should allow a broader scope of practice among healthcare providers to improve access to care, rather than have the federal government base Medicare payment adjustments around geographic locations, an Institute of Medicine analysis says.
