Inpatient Rehabilitation Facilities

This page provides basic information about being certified as a Medicare and/or Medicaid Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility (IRF) and includes links to applicable laws, regulations, and compliance information. 

IRFs are free standing rehabilitation hospitals and rehabilitation units in acute care hospitals.  They provide an intensive rehabilitation program and patients who are admitted must be able to tolerate three hours of intense rehabilitation services per day.  CMS collects patient assessment data only on Medicare Part A fee-for service patients. 

These facilities are exempt from the Medicare Hospital PPS and are paid under the IRF Prospective Payment System (PPS) effective 1/1/2002.  In order to be paid under the IRF PPS, they must submit the IRF-PAI (patient assessment instrument).  The IRF-PAI is the third patient assessment instrument currently utilized by CMS (the other two are the MDS in nursing homes and OASIS in home health agencies).