In July 2014, the Washington State Health Care Authority (HCA) rebased inpatient and outpatient rates and suggested a 3 percent cut to adjust for coding changes in the new system. WSHA pushed back and HCA agreed to make budget neutrality adjustments as needed. HCA recently completed its two-year analysis and determined no additional rate adjustments were needed.
WSHA estimates that the adopted process to help identify data and calculation errors — along with extensive work by WSHA, WSHA consultant Analysis Group and member hospitals in WSHA’s Medicaid Payment Task Force — saved hospitals about $60 million in payment reductions over the two-year measurement period and will continue to result in savings in future years. Click here to read more in a recent article from WSHA’s Fiscal Watch email newsletter. (Andrew Busz)
