On April 27th, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed rule to update the federal fiscal year (FY) 2019 Medicare payment rates for skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) under the prospective payment system (PPS). The rule also proposes changes to the case-mix classification system, Quality Reporting Program, Value-Based Purchasing Program (VBP), and solicits feedback on new interoperability standards. Based on the changes outlined in the proposed rule and the 2.4% SNF market basket update mandated by the Bipartisan Budget Act, CMS estimates that Medicare PPS payments to SNFs would increase by $850 million in FY 2019, while the VBP program would reduce payments by $211 million.
CMS will accept comments on the proposed rule until June 26th. The rule is available here and a summary can be found here.