The newsroom includes access to CHA News, which provides timely information to members every Thursday and is at the core of CHA benefits. In addition, it is also home to resources such as toolkits and talking points designed to help member hospitals and health systems communicate with internal and external audiences on a range of current health care-related issues. Links to CHA media statements and press releases can also be found here.
Newsroom
CMS Issues Final Rule for FFY 2020 Hospice Payment
This post has been archived and contains information that may be out of date.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued its final rule updating hospice payment rates for federal fiscal year (FFY) 2020. CMS finalizes a net payment increase of 2.6%, or $520 million, as compared to FFY 2019. The rule also rebases the rates hospices are paid for certain types of care. In addition, the rule modifies the beneficiary hospice election statement to reduce the time spent trying to obtain information needed for treatment decisions and accurate claims submissions.
CMS Issues FFY 2020 Long Term Care Hospital PPS Final Rule
This post has been archived and contains information that may be out of date.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued the final rule for the long-term care hospital (LTCH) prospective payment system (PPS) for federal fiscal year (FFY) 2020. The provisions of the final rule will be effective Oct. 1, 2020.
Below are highlights of the final rule.
Payment Impact As provided in the FFY 2016 final rule, LTCHs are reimbursed under a dual-rate system; patients who meet specified criteria are reimbursed by the LTCH PPS standard federal payment amount and remaining patients are reimbursed at the lower site-neutral payment rate. Implementation of the dual-rate payment system included a transition period during which facilities received a blended rate. For cost reporting periods beginning in FFY 2020, the transition period will end and LTCHs will be paid exclusively on the site-neutral payment rate for patients who do not meet LTCH PPS criteria.
Overall, CMS projects that LTCH PPS payments will increase by approximately 1%, or $43 million. For cases reimbursed at the site-neutral rate, CMS projects a decrease of approximately 5.9%.
Quality Reporting/SPADEs CMS finalizes several proposals relating to the LTCH Quality Reporting Program (QRP), including the addition of several standardized patient assessment data elements (SPADEs), several of which address social determinants of health. CMS also finalizes two new measures addressing transfer of health information and changes the existing “Discharge to Community” measure to exclude baseline nursing home residents.
CDPH Notifies Nursing Facilities About Revised Minimum Data Set Section S Form
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The California Department of Public Health has issued All Facilities Letter 19-25, notifying nursing facilities, skilled-nursing facilities, intermediate care facilities, and swing bed hospitals of revisions to two forms – the Minimum Data Set (MDS) 3.0 Section S form and the California Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST) form. Beginning Oct. 1, all Medicare and Medicaid health care facilities must use the revised MDS form specific to California.
CMS Releases Final, Proposed Rules
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This week, CMS released the following rules:
Inpatient Psychiatric Facility Prospective Payment System (PPS) Final Rule Hospice Payment Final Rule Long-Term Acute Care Hospital PPS Final Rule
Center for Behavioral Health Calls for Nominations
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The CHA Center for Behavioral Health (CBH) is calling for nominations to fill four vacancies on its advisory board.
Upcoming Disaster Conference to Feature Executive Panel
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At this year’s Disaster Planning for California Hospitals Conference, to be held Sept. 10-11 in Pasadena, attendees will have a unique opportunity to hear directly from hospital executives about their role during and after a crisis.
CHA DataSuite Releases Preliminary Data Reports for FFY 2021 Medicare Hospital Wage Index and Occupational Mix
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CHA has provided member hospitals and health systems with preliminary analyses of Medicare Hospital Wage Index and Occupational Mix data. The analyses are intended to provide hospitals with a comparative review of the wage and occupational mix data that will be used to develop the federal fiscal year (FFY) 2021 Medicare hospital wage index.
CHA Releases Survey on New or Remodeled Pharmacy Clean Room Projects
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Last week, CHA sent pharmacy staff at member hospitals a survey about their new or remodeled clean room projects. The information requested in the survey will support CHA’s advocacy with respect to the rapidly approaching Dec. 1 deadline for hospitals to comply with new sterile compounding regulations.
CMS Issues FFY 2020 Inpatient Psychiatric Facility PPS Final Rule
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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released its final rule for the federal fiscal year (FFY) 2020 inpatient psychiatric facility (IPF) prospective payment system (PPS).
CMS finalized a 2.9% market basket update, offset by reductions including a productivity adjustment of 0.4% and an Affordable Care Act-mandated 0.75% reduction, resulting in a payment increase of approximately 1.75%. After accounting for a $10 million decrease as a result of an update to the outlier threshold, CMS estimates overall payments will increase by $65 million compared to FFY 2019. CMS also finalized its proposals to revise and rebase the market basket to reflect a 2016 base year rather than a 2012 base year, and remove the one-year lag in wage index data used under the IPF PPS. As a result, CMS will apply the FFY 2020 pre-floor, pre-reclassified inpatient prospective payment system wage index data.
For the IPF Quality Reporting Program, CMS finalized the adoption of one new measure — Medication Continuation Following Inpatient Psychiatric Discharge (National Quality Forum #3205) — beginning with the FFY 2021 payment determination and subsequent years.
The proposed rule is effective Oct. 1. Additional information is available in a CMS fact sheet.
Covered California Releases Report on Health Purchaser Strategies
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Earlier this week, Covered California released a report — Health Purchaser Strategies for Improving Quality of Care and Delivery System Reform — that reviews in detail the strategies used by health purchasers to drive value in health care.
