Becker's Hospital Review

13 CFO / FINANCE CMS to boost hospital pay 3.1% in 2024, AHA 'deeply concerned': 11 notes By Laura Dyrda C MS plans to boost inpatient hospital pay 3.1 percent in 2024, which the American Hospital Association called "inadequate" to keep up with inflation. e agency issued its Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System final rule Aug. 1 and arrived at a 3.1 percent pay bump based on a hospital market basket update of 3.3 percent, which was reduced by the required 0.2 percentage point productivity adjustment. Hospitals meeting CMS requirements in the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting program and meaningful EHR use will qualify for the rate increase. "e AHA is deeply concerned with CMS' woefully inadequate inpatient and long-term care hospital payment updates," said Ashley ompson, AHA's senior vice president for public policy analysis and development, in a statement. "e agency continues to finalize rate increases that are not commensurate with the near decades-high inflation and increased costs for labor, equipment, drugs and supplies that hospitals across the country are experiencing." Bruce Siegel, MD, president and CEO of America's Essential Hospitals, also issued a statement critical of the final rule. "Today's final rule for the fiscal year 2024 Inpatient Prospective Payment System will undermine the nation's essential hospitals and safety net for low-income and marginalized patients with its harmful policies on disproportionate share hospital funding," he said. Eleven things to know: 1. CMS estimates the 3.1 percent pay bump on average will increase 2024 Medicare pay to hospitals by $2.2 billion. Hospitals could face pay reductions under the IPPS for excess readmissions as part of the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program; appearing in the worst- performing quartile of the Hospital Acquired Condition Reduction Program; and adjustments as part of the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing Program. 2. e final rule will drop Medicare disproportionate share hospital payments and uncompensated care payments next year by around $957 million, CMS estimated. "A full handicap to the inflation update shortfall is CMS cutting mission-critical uncompensated care payments by more than $900 million," said Chip Kahn, president and CEO of the Federation of American Hospitals in a statement. "is final rule further strains the health care safety net in 2024 and threatens patient access to care." e CMS' Office of the Actuary estimates the rate of uninsured will decline to 8.3 percent next year from 9.2 percent in 2023, but the rate of uninsured could be far more amid Medicaid redeterminations. "is is an inexplicable assumption given that the Department of Health and Human Services itself estimates that 15 million individuals will leave Medicaid once the continuous enrollment provision comes Image Credit: Adobe Stock

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