July 31, 2008
CMS today released a final regulation that establishes payment rates and policies for Medicare inpatient hospital care for fiscal year 2009. The regulation included a payment update for hospitals of 3.6 percent for the new fiscal year, which begins October 1, 2008. Other changes include the following:
- CMS added four new categories of conditions that, when acquired in the hospital, will no longer lead to higher Medicare payment. They are: manifestations of poor glycemic control, surgical site infection following certain orthopedic procedures, surgical site infection following bariatric surgery for obesity, and deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism following certain orthopedic procedures.
- CMS adopted 13 new quality measures that it requires hospitals to measure and report on to receive the full reimbursement update for the following fiscal year, FY 2010. These measures include hip fracture mortality rate, death among surgical patients with treatable serious complications, accidental puncture or laceration, and abdominal aortic aneurysm mortality rate. When added to the quality measures that CMS continued from 2008, hospitals must now report on a total of 42 such measures.
Click here to read the full Fiscal Year 2009 rule.
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