CHA DataSuite has issued a hospital-specific analysis of the Medicare federal fiscal year (FFY) 2023 hospital wage index and occupational mix data, which is designed in the business intelligence platform.
The data analyzed are “final” and are the third of three wage and occupational mix data public use files (PUFs) that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued to develop the hospital wage index for FFY 2023.
It is important that hospitals review these wage data. Under CMS’ hospital wage index development timetable, hospitals have until May 27 to verify their data and submit correction requests with supporting documentation to both CMS and their Medicare administrative contractor (MAC) to:
- Correct errors due to CMS or their MAC mishandling the “final” wage data posted in the April 29 PUF
- Dispute data corrections made by CMS in which the hospital was notified between March 19 and May 13 and the hospital did not request revisions
While appeals must be submitted via email to wageindexreview@cms.hhs.gov, CMS is encouraging hospitals to also test and submit user feedback on the Wage Index Appeals module in the Medicare Electronic Application Request Information System by submitting their appeals for the FFY 2023 wage index cycle.
Data corrections made by CMS in which the hospital was notified on or after May 14 may be appealed to the Provider Reimbursement Review Board.
Changes to the data will be limited to situations involving errors by CMS or the MAC that the hospital could not have known about before review of the “final” April PUFs. Data that were incorrect in the preliminary or revised wage index data PUFs, but for which no correction requests were received by the Feb. 15 deadline, will not be changed at this stage for inclusion in the wage index.
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