2022 FINAL RULES SKILLED NURSING
An Analysis and Commentary on Federal Health Care Issues by Larry Goldberg
CMS Finalizes FY 2022 Skilled Nursing Facility PPS Update
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have issued a final rule to update the Medicare skilled nursing facility prospective payment system (SNF) for FY 2022.
This rule updates the payment rates used under the prospective payment system (PPS) for skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) for fiscal year (FY) 2022.
In addition, the rule includes a forecast error adjustment for FY 2022, updates the diagnosis code mappings used under the Patient Driven Payment Model (PDPM), rebases and revises the SNF market basket, implements a recently-enacted SNF consolidated billing exclusion along with the required proportional reduction in the SNF PPS base rates, and includes a discussion of a PDPM parity adjustment.
In addition, the final rule includes updates for the SNF Quality Reporting Program (QRP) and the SNF Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) Program, including a policy to suppress the use of the SNF readmission measure for scoring and payment adjustment purposes in the FY 2022 SNF VBP Program because CMS has determined that circumstances caused by the public health emergency for COVID-19 have significantly affected the validity and reliability of the measure and resulting performance scores.
The 290-page document is scheduled for publication in the Federal Register on August 4. A copy is currently available at: https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2021-16309.pdf This link will change upon publication.
The wage index tables for this final rule can be accessed on the SNF PPS Wage Index home page, at
http://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Medicare-Fee-for-Service-Payment/SNFPPS/WageIndex.html.