On July 31st, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a final 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 finalizes changes to the case-mix classification system, SNF Quality Reporting Program (QRP), and Value-Based Purchasing Program (VBP).
Based on the changes outlined in the final rule and the 2.4% SNF market basket update mandated by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, CMS estimates that Medicare PPS payments to SNFs will increase by $820 million in FY 2019, while the SNF VBP Program will reduce payments by $211 million.
Unless otherwise specified, the provisions of the rule will go into effect on October 1, 2018. A summary of the rule is attached, and the full rule is available here.