Rule change would help hospitals better adapt to financial pressures says Miller

U.S. Rep. Carol Miller (R-WV) and a bipartisan contingent of 111 of her colleagues urged the Biden administration to better account for the economic impacts hospitals currently face due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and high inflation. 

To do so, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) should make payment updates to the hospital inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS) proposed rule for fiscal year (FY) 2023, according to a July 26 letter Rep. Miller and the lawmakers sent to CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure.

In April, CMS released its FY 2023 IPPS Proposed Rule that would increase operating payment rates under IPPS to 3.2 percent, with a hospital market basket update of 3.1 percent, which the members wrote in their letter do not properly account for the “critical financial pressures” that hospitals are now facing.

Rep. Miller and her colleagues expressed concern that the proposed payment updates don’t accurately reflect today’s cost of patient care and, when tethered with other policy changes included in the proposed rule, would result in a payment decrease for IPPS hospitals in FY 2023, according to their letter. 

“We’ve heard the reality of the uncertain conditions and challenges that hospitals continue to face and operate under due to the pandemic and inflation,” wrote the members, who included U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider (D-IL). “We therefore respectfully urge CMS to consider using its special exceptions and adjustments authority to make a retrospective adjustment to more fairly account for the difference between the market basket update that was implemented for FY 2022 and the current projected FY 2022 market basket.”

This change could provide a more accurate payment update that would provide hospitals and healthcare providers with the necessary tools they need to provide quality care to communities they serve and ensure Medicare payments for acute care services reflect today’s cost of care, wrote Rep. Miller and her colleagues.