The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently released its final rule for inpatient prospective payment system rates. Compared to a total of $2.12 billion in inpatient payments for 2016, Washington hospitals are estimated to receive $2.10 billion in 2017. The new rates begin with the new federal fiscal year, starting October 1.
The $52 million in additional payment for Washington hospitals provided by the annual update was more than offset by a number of cuts, including a loss of $20 million from Affordable Care Act mandated market basket reductions, a loss of $27 million from mandated coding adjustment reductions, and a loss of $36 million from wage index changes. On top of the changes from the new rule, Washington hospitals will also see an impact from the changes imposed through sequestration, resulting in an estimated loss of $42 million.
The changes vary by hospital. For Washington State, payments will decrease on average by 1 percent but changes range from a negative 4.9 percent to a positive 2.9 percent.
WSHA sent summaries of the changes and facility-specific analyses of the impacts to the Chief Financial Officer or other designated finance person for each hospital September 1.
WSHA’s analytical partner, DataGen, will host a webcast to discuss the changes in more detail. Registration for the webinar is required, and the specifics are below:
- Wednesday, September 14, 2016
- 12-1 pm PST
- Registration: https://datagen.webex.com/datagen/onstage/g.php?MTID=e154ab11f030d3f683cdb35be23475645
(Claudia Sanders, claudias@wsha.org )
