Medicare Disappoints Hospitals With Large Cut To Recoup Past Overpayments
In a rule released Tuesday, federal officials said they are going forward with the 1.5 percent cut to hospital reimbursement that they proposed earlier. It is expected to recoup $11 billion in past overpayments. Hospitals had lobbied to keep the cut at 0.8 percent. Also in the rule were the new penalties for hospitals that readmit too many Medicare patients.
Modern Healthcare:
CMS Finalizes Controversial Hospital Overpayment Cut
In a final rule released Tuesday, the CMS said it will keep a controversial 1.5% cut to hospital reimbursement. Industry stakeholders had rallied against the move which aims to recoup a total of $11 billion in overpayments. Hospitals expected the cut to remain at 0.8%—as it has been ever year since 2014, two years after Congress mandated the CMS to recover funds allegedly lost as a result of incorrect coding on inpatient hospital stays. ... The CMS, however, estimated that another 0.8% reduction would have left the government $5 billion short of recouping the overpayments by its deadline of 2017. (Dickson, 8/2)
Kaiser Health News:
Medicare's Readmission Penalties Hit New High
The federal government’s penalties on hospitals will reach a new high as Medicare withholds more than half a billion dollars in payments over the next year, records released Tuesday show. The government will punish more than half of the nation’s hospitals -- a total of 2,597 -- having more patients than expected return within a month. While that is about the same number penalized last year, the average penalty will increase by a fifth, according to a Kaiser Health News analysis. The new penalties, which take effect in October, are based on the rehospitalization rate for patients with six common conditions. (Rau, 8/2)