CMS Distributes Nursing Home FY26 VBP Multipliers

(Aug. 12, 2025) Nursing home members can now see how their October Medicare Part A fee-for-service rates will be impacted by the expanded Value Based Purchasing (VBP) program. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) placed facility-specific Performance Score Reports (PSRs) that homes can download by accessing their provider preview report folders in iQIES. This marks the first year that the Skilled Nursing Home (SNF) VBP program has expanded beyond a single, avoidable hospitalization measure since its inception.

Members will recall that CMS withholds two percent of SNFs’ Medicare fee-for-service Part A payments to fund the program and redistributes 60 percent of the withhold as incentive payments. The remaining 40 percent of the withhold is retained in the Medicare Trust Fund. CMS calculates an incentive payment multiplier that accounts for both the two percent payment withhold used to fund the program and any incentive payments earned through performance on the quality measures. The incentive payment multiplier will be applied to a home’s Medicare rate for services provided during FY 2026 (i.e., starting Oct. 1, 2025).

The steps below outline the process for accessing the PSR which includes your FY26 VBP multiplier:

1. Log into iQIES at https://iqies.cms.gov/ using your Health Care Quality Information Systems (HCQIS) Access Roles and Profile (HARP) user ID and password.
2. In the Reports menu, select “My Reports”.
3. From the “My Reports” page, locate the MDS 3.0 Provider Preview Reports folder. Select the “MDS 3.0 Provider Preview Reports” link to open the folder.
4. Locate the desired SNF VBP Program Performance Score Report (file name: SNFVBP_[CCN]_FY2026_IPM_AUG2025PSR.xlsx).
5. Once located, select “More” next to your desired SNF VBP Program Performance Score Report (PSR) and the report will be downloaded through your browser. Once downloaded, open the file to view your facility’s report.

In addition to the PSR, CMS has a number of other SNF VBP resources to assist providers in interpreting the report and understanding the program and measures. The PSR User Guide, which describes the data in each worksheet of the PSR and provides reference information and instructions for interpreting the report, is available here.  A fact sheet about the FY26 SNF VBP and the four measures used is here and the VBP timeline is here.  Those eager to immerse themselves into more VBP math than is healthy should consult the multiplier calculation infographic posted here. 

Questions about accessing your PSR, which is only available in iQIES, are fielded by the iQIES Service Center by phone at (800) 339-9313 or by email at iQIES@cms.hhs.gov.

Contact: Darius Kirstein, dkirstein@leadingageny.org, 518-867-8841