FY 2018 Medicare Payment and Policy Updates for Inpatient Psychiatric Facilities
OVERVIEW: On August 2, 2017, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a notice with comment period updating fiscal year (FY) 2018 Medicare payment policies and rates for the Inpatient Psychiatric Facilities Prospective Payment System (IPF PPS). The updates for FY 2018 are summarized below.
SUMMARY OF PAYMENT UPDATES Update to IPF Payments: CMS estimates IPF payments to increase by 0.99 percent or $45 million in FY 2018. This amount reflects a 2.6 percent IPF market basket update less the productivity adjustment of 0.6 percentage point and less the 0.75 percentage point reduction required by law, for a net market basket update of 1.25 percent. Additionally, estimated payments to IPFs are reduced by 0.26 percentage point due to updating the outlier fixed-dollar loss threshold amount.
Wage Index: CMS is updating the IPF wage index for FY 2018. The FY 2018 IPF wage index values include minor Office of Management and Budget (OMB) changes to a few wage index areas.
COMMENT SOLICITATION
CMS is soliciting comments on improvements that can be made to the healthcare delivery system that would reduce unnecessary burden for clinicians, providers such as IPFs, and patients and their families. We aim to increase quality of care, lower costs, improve program integrity, and make the healthcare system more effective, simple, and accessible.
The FY 2018 IPF PPS notice with comment period can be downloaded from the Federal Register at: www.federalregister.gov/public-inspection.
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