Last week the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services issued an interim final rule that cuts current fiscal year 2009 payment rates for the long-term care hospital prospective payment system.
The rule becomes effective on Wednesday, June 3.
Here’s the justification: CMS claims that its analysis of the LTCH final rule for FY 2009, which includes the 15-month period of July 2008 through September 2009, contained an error in the re-weighting of the LTCH payment unit, the MS-LTC-DRG.
CMS says this error has already resulted in overpayment of $130 million to long-term care hospitals. While CMS will not take steps to recapture the lost funds, they intend to implement a payment reduction for the remainder of FY 2009, which will reduce LTCH payments by $43 million, or 0.9 percent.
The agency is accepting comments on the interim final rule through June 29. You can comment electronically at http://www.regulations.gov or by regular mail sent to:
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
Department of Health and Human Services
Attention: CMS-1337-IFC
P.O. Box 8011
Baltimore, MD 21244-8011
In your comments, reference file code CMS-1337-IFC.