WASHINGTON – The American Hospital Association has suggested that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services consider using a separate market basket to update payments for inpatient psychiatric facilities under the IPF prospective payment system.
The AHA submitted its comments to CMS this week in a letter from Executive Vice President Rick Pollack.
Pollack wrote that IPF payments have been updated since rate year 2007 using a market basket that reflects the operating and capital cost structures for IPFs, inpatient rehabilitation facilities and long-term care hospitals.
He said the IPF-specific market basket should include both free-standing and hospital-based facilities. Hospital-based facilities had a negative 9.8 percent margin in 2007, Pollack wrote.
The AHA also wants CMS to allow permanent adjustments to the resident limit for hospitals that take on and complete the training of residents from hospitals that are closing.
"Because these situations involve a residency program closure, allowing permanent adjustments would not increase overall resident counts nationally," Pollack wrote.
