SNF Prospective Payment System Proposed Rule for 2015
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is officially posting the notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) for the Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) Prospective Payment System (PPS) for federal fiscal year 2015 in the May 6th edition of the Federal Register.
Some initial highlights of the proposed rule include:
- A 2.4 percent market basket increase minus a 0.4 percent multifactor productivity adjustment for a net increase of 2.0 percent in SNF PPS rates;
- A zero market basket forecast error adjustment;
- An overall $750 million dollar increase in aggregate SNF PPS payments;
- A rebasing of the SNF market basket from 2004 to 2010;
- Adoption of the most recent Office of Management and Budget standards for determining the urban versus rural status of a facility, with a blended implementation phase in; and
- An update to the wage index to reflect hospital wage data for the period of Oct. 1, 2010 to Oct. 1, 2011.
In addition, there are proposed changes in Minimum Data Set (MDS) policies for therapy services and a proposal to study alternatives to the current reimbursement system.
LeadingAge NY is currently in the process of conducting an in-depth review of the proposed rule and will be advising members regarding further details.
Contact: Patrick Cucinelli, pcucinelli@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8827