While most observers of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the release Wednesday of its final payment rule for inpatient and long-term care hospitals, caught many off-guard, expecting that the venerable agency would post its final rule on Friday, an expected custom by CMS.
Nonetheless, the final rule is here and appears to support underserved and under-resourced communities.
The fiscal year (FY) 2024 Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) and Long-Term Care Hospital (LTCH) Prospective Payment System (PPS) final rule updates Medicare payments and policies for hospitals as required by statute. The rule also adopts hospital quality measures to “foster safety, equity, and reduce preventable harm in the hospital setting; and recognizes homelessness as an indicator of increased resource utilization in the acute inpatient hospital setting,” CMS said in its announcement Wednesday.
CMS said the final rule is consistent with the “Administration’s goal of advancing health equity for all, including members of historically underserved and under-resourced communities, as described in the President’s January 20, 2021, Executive Order 13985 on ‘Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government.’”
According to CMS, the final rule also addresses payments for acute care hospitals paid under the IPPS that “successfully participate in the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting (IQR) Program and are meaningful electronic health record (EHR) users.
“The final rule will result in an increase in operating payment rates of 3.1 percent. This reflects an FY 2024 projected hospital market basket update of 3.3 percent, reduced by a statutorily required productivity adjustment of a 0.2 percentage point. Under the LTCH PPS, CMS expects payments in FY 2024 to increase by approximately 0.2 percent or $6 million.”
Additional information on the 2024 final rule is available here:
Programming note: ICD10monitor is producing a three-day educational webcast series on the 2024 IPPS final rule, Aug. 15, 16 and 17. Laurie Johnson and Erica Remer, MD, are scheduled to report on the new code changes.
Literature is ripe with classic phrases that seem timelessly apropos. For example, take the partial federal government shutdown. For days, the phrase repeated in the
I want to cover a story that was spectacularly overshadowed by the recent assassination of former CEO for UnitedHealthcare Brian Thompson. The story is the
Please log in to your account to comment on this article.
Join Beth Wolf, MD, CPC, CCDS, for an in-depth webcast on the FY2025 spinal fusion MS-DRG updates. Discover key changes in DRG classification, understand impacts on documentation and CMI, and learn strategies to ensure compliance.
Join Angela Comfort, DBA, MBA, RHIA, CDIP, CCS, CCS-P, as she presents effective strategies to strengthen collaboration between CDI, coding, and quality departments in acute care hospitals. Angela will also share guidance on implementing cross-departmental meetings, using shared KPIs, and engaging leadership to foster a culture of collaboration. Attendees will gain actionable tools to optimize documentation accuracy, elevate quality metrics, and drive a unified approach to healthcare goals, ultimately enhancing both patient outcomes and organizational performance.
Optimize your outpatient clinical documentation and gain comprehensive knowledge from foundational practices to advanced technologies, ensuring improved patient care and organizational and financial success. This webcast bundle provides a holistic approach to outpatient CDI, empowering you to implement best practices from the ground up and leverage advanced strategies for superior results. You will gain actionable insights to improve documentation quality, patient care, compliance, and financial outcomes.
Enhancing outpatient clinical documentation is crucial for maintaining accuracy, compliance, and proper reimbursement in today’s complex healthcare environment. This webcast, presented by industry expert Angela Comfort, DBA, RHIA, CDIP, CCS, CCS-P, will provide you with actionable strategies to tackle complex challenges in outpatient documentation. You’ll learn how to craft detailed clinical narratives, utilize advanced EHR features, and implement accurate risk adjustment and HCC coding. The session also covers essential regulatory updates to keep your documentation practices compliant. Join us to gain the tools you need to improve documentation quality, support better patient care, and ensure financial integrity.
Dr. Ronald Hirsch provides critical details on the new Medicare Appeal Process for Status Changes for patients whose status changes during their hospital stay. He also delves into other scenarios of hospital patients receiving custodial care or medically unnecessary services where patient notifications may be needed along with the processes necessary to ensure compliance with state and federal guidance.
Healthcare organizations face complex regulatory requirements under the No Surprises Act and Price Transparency rules. These policies mandate extensive fee disclosures across settings, and confusion is widespread—many hospitals remain unaware they must post every contracted rate. Non-compliance could lead to costly penalties, financial loss, and legal risks. Join David M. Glaser Esq. as he shows you how to navigate these regulations effectively.
Protect your facility from unwanted audits! Join Becky Jacobsen, BSN, RN, MBS, CCS-P, CPC, CPEDC, CBCS, CEMC, and take a deep dive into both the CMS and AMA guidelines for reporting post operative pain blocks. You’ll learn how to determine if the nerve block is separately codable with real life examples for better understanding. Becky will also cover how to evaluate whether documentation supports medical necessity, offer recommendations for stronger documentation practices, and provide guidance on educating providers about documentation requirements. She’ll include a discussion of appropriate modifier and diagnosis coding assignment so that you can be confident that your billing of post operative pain blocks is fully supported and compliant.
During this RACmonitor webcast Dr. Ronald Hirsch spotlights the areas of the OIG’s Work Plan and the findings of their most recent audits that impact utilization review, case management, and audit staff. He also provides his common-sense interpretation of the prevailing regulations related to those target issues. You’ll walk away better equipped with strategies to put in place immediately to reduce your risk of paybacks, increased scrutiny, and criminal penalties.
Copyright © 2024 ICD10monitor. Powered by MedLearn Media.
Happy National Doctor’s Day! Learn how to get a complimentary webcast on ‘Decoding Social Admissions’ as a token of our heartfelt appreciation! Click here to learn more →
CYBER WEEK IS HERE! Don’t miss your chance to get 20% off now until Dec. 2 with code CYBER24
