CMS Updates Hospital Policies for Fiscal Year 2025 and Finalizes a New Payment Model for Select Surgeries

Last week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released the final rule for the Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) and Long-term Care Hospital payments (LTCH-PPS) for fiscal year 2025. Effective October 1, 2024, the IPPS rates will increase by 2.9% for hospitals that successfully report quality measures and are meaningful electronic health record users. CMS finalized policies to extend the low wage index adjustment; provide a separate payment to small, independent IPPS hospitals to establish and maintain a buffer stock of essential medicines for use during future shortages; distribute an additional 200 Medicare-funded residency payment slots to train physicians as required by statute; adjust hospital payments when patients have inadequate housing and housing instability; and extend certain COVID-19 and influenza data reporting requirements for hospitals and Critical Access Hospitals (CAHs).  They did not finalize a proposal to define ‘new’ in the context of residency training programs.

In this rule, CMS also finalized a new, mandatory Innovation Center episode-based payment model entitled Transforming Episode Accountability Model (TEAM). For this model, acute care hospitals in select geographic areas will be accountable for ensuring that Medicare beneficiaries receive coordinated, high-quality care during and after five surgical procedures: coronary artery bypass graft (CABG), lower extremity joint replacement (LEJR), major bowel procedure, surgical hip/femur fracture treatment (SHFFT), and spinal fusion.  Additionally, within TEAM, CMS finalized a voluntary Decarbonization and Resilience Initiative, in which participants will collect and share greenhouse gas emissions data with CMS and CMS will provide technical assistance to enhance climate sustainability for their organizations.

The post CMS Updates Hospital Policies for Fiscal Year 2025 and Finalizes a New Payment Model for Select Surgeries appeared first on Pennsylvania Office of Rural Health.

Recommend0 recommendationsPublished in My Healthy Pennsylvania, Rural Health PA

Related Articles

As Social Need Screening Advances, Transportation Remains an Afterthought

Some big changes in 2022 and 2023 have set up the healthcare sector to advance screening for non-medical social needs in 2024 and beyond. This is great news as we work to address social determinants of health (SDoH), improve health outcomes, and reduce health disparities. But one key social need – transportation – isn’t getting …
The post As Social Need Screening Advances, Transportation Remains an Afterthought appeared first on Salud America.

5 Essential Frameworks for Preventing Violent Child Death

The U.S. has a violent child death problem. Developing strategies to prevent violent child deaths death from firearms and traffic crashes is a demanding task that requires consideration of numerous upstream, interrelated, and tangential issues. To help safety advocates develop strategies to prevent violent child death, we compiled five frameworks to help: Understand and explain …
The post 5 Essential Frameworks for Preventing Violent Child Death appeared first on Salud America.

Report: Over a Third of US Counties Are Maternity Care Deserts

The US is experiencing a maternity healthcare crisis where pre-term labors and infant and maternal mortality rates are up due to a lack of access to prenatal and postpartum care.  Many of these women live in areas designated as maternity care deserts. These are areas where pregnant individuals and mothers have limited or nonexistent access …
The post Report: Over a Third of US Counties Are Maternity Care Deserts appeared first on Salud America.

Medicare: What Latinos Should Know

Medicare can be a complex topic for anyone.   Getting health insurance coverage through Medicare has many moving parts, from knowing where to start, to searching through plans, to choosing the right plan for you.   Let’s dive into Medicare and a few helpful tips to consider when choosing your plan.   What is Medicare?   Medicare is the …
The post Medicare: What Latinos Should Know appeared first on Salud America.