CHA News

CHA DataSuite Releases Analysis of Inpatient Prospective Payment System FFY 2020 Proposed Rule

For CFOs

CHA has provided member hospitals and health systems with hospital-specific CHA DataSuite analyses showing how Medicare inpatient fee-for-service (FFS) payments will change from federal fiscal year (FFY) 2019 to FFY 2020 based on the policies put forth in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) FFY 2020 inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS) proposed rule.

The analysis compares the year-over-year changes in operating, capital, and uncompensated care IPPS payments and includes breakout sections with detailed insight into specific policies that influence IPPS payment changes, including:

  • Potential payment penalties under the Inpatient Quality Reporting and Electronic Health Record Incentive programs
  • Impact of CMS’ proposal to adjust the wage index of hospitals in the top and bottom quartiles of wage index values nationally to reduce wage disparities
  • Disproportionate share hospital (DSH) uncompensated care (UCC) payments
  • CMS’ use of solely Medicare Cost Report Worksheet S-10 data for FFY 2020 UCC payments

This analysis does not include estimates for outlier payments; payments for services provided to Medicare Advantage patients, including indirect medical education payments; electronic health record incentive payments; or modifications in FFS payments as a result of hospital participation in new payment models being tested under Medicare demonstration/pilot programs.

Proposed rule changes modeled in the analysis include provider type changes, a market basket update, Affordable Care Act-mandated market basket reductions, coding adjustment reductions mandated by the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act, wage index/geographic adjustment factor values, reducing wage index disparities, DSH-UCC payment changes, change in hospital-specific rates, MS-DRG updates, quality-based payment adjustments, and low-volume adjustment changes. More information is available in the attached analysis description. 

CHA invites members to register for a member forum, scheduled for June 11 from 10–11:30 a.m. (PT), that will provide an overview of the proposed rule and solicit input for CHA’s comment letter, due June 24. Registration is available online.