CMS Releases Final IPPS Rule for FY 2012 - August 9, 2011

The federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on Aug. 1 released the final inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS) rule for fiscal year (FY) 2012. After all adjustments, there is a 1.1 percent positive update for operating payments under the IPPS in FY 2012, or an increase of approximately $1.2 billion compared to FY 2011. In the rule, CMS also finalized its proposal to include three National Quality Forum-endorsed 30-day readmission measures in the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program beginning in FY 2013. In addition, CMS finalized its proposal to add a Medicare Spending per Beneficiary measure to the Inpatient Quality Reporting (IQR) program and the Hospital Value-Based Purchasing Program in FY 2014. For the IQR program’s FY 2014 measure set, CMS finalized its proposal to retire the antibiotics measure and three topped-out measures, and it suspended data collection for an additional four topped-out measures. Also for FY 2014, CMS finalized one hospital-acquired infection (HAI) measure and one structural measure. For the IQR program’s FY 2015 measure set, CMS finalized its proposal to add three HAI measures, a Stroke measure set, and a Venous Thromboembolism measure set. For more details on the final IPPS rule, please see NAPH’s Special Update (members only).