CHA urges hospitals to review their wage and occupational mix data public use files (PUFs), issued by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), by May 28. These files are used to develop the hospital wage index for federal fiscal year (FFY) 2022.
Hospitals have until May 28 to submit correction requests to CMS and their Medicare administrative contractor (MAC) to:
- Correct errors due to CMS or MAC mishandling of the final wage and occupational mix data posted in the April 30 PUF
- Dispute data corrections made by CMS in which the hospital has been notified between March 20 and May 14 that do not arise from a hospital’s request for revisions.
Verified corrections to the wage index data received by May 28 by CMS and the MACs will be incorporated into the final FFY 2022 wage index, which will be effective Oct. 1, 2021.
Due to the COVID-19 public health emergency, CMS is not requiring hospitals to submit hard copies of their appeal requests for the FFY 2022 wage index; hospitals are required to submit only electronic copies to CMS and their MAC.
Additional information is available on the CMS website.