In an effort to improve the accuracy of payment under the acute care hospital inpatient prospective payment system and give hospitals incentives to improve quality, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) proposed a new rule. From the press release:
Medicare’s inpatient rates for operating expenses will increase by 3.3 percent in FY 2008 for those hospitals that report quality data to CMS. Overall, the proposed rule is estimated to increase payments to more than 3,500 acute care hospitals by $3.3 billion.
“The payment reforms included in this proposed rule would continue a process for the third consecutive year to ensure that Medicare payments for inpatient services are more accurate and better reflect the severity of the patient’s condition,†said CMS Acting Administrator Leslie V. Norwalk, Esq. “The proposed rule also represents yet another major step forward in Medicare’s efforts to foster higher quality care in inpatient settings.â€