The American Hospital Association says the national average fee-for-service growth rate for Medicare Advantage plans in 2010 has raised additional concerns that the fiscal year 2010 inpatient prospective payment system update could be very small.
The Medicare Advantage growth rate, released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services last week, contained a projection that the fiscal year 2010 PPS update factor under Medicare Part A would be -0.9 percent.
The AHA believes this projection could be an indication that CMS will propose a modest update when it issues its FY 2010 IPPS proposed rule.
The hospital association notes that potential reasons include an estimated market basket update of 2.2 percent, which is much lower than in the past, and an anticipated behavioral offset cut related to the new Medicare-severity diagnosis-related groups.
The American Hospital Association represents approximately 5,000 U.S. hospitals, healthcare systems, health networks, other care providers and 37,000 individual members.