Medicare Hospital Wage Index and Occupational Mix Data Analysis reports for 2018 will be released in the near future. Members are advised to review these important wage data reports.
The data analyzed is “final” and is the third of three wage and occupational mix data public use files (PUFs) that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued to develop the hospital wage index for FFY 2018.
Under CMS’ hospital wage index development timetable, hospitals have until May 30, 2017 to submit requests for either corrections to errors in the April 28, 2017 PUFs due to CMS or Medicare Administrative Contractor (MAC) mishandling of the data, or for revisions of desk review adjustments to wage index data as included in the PUFs. No new data issues may be addressed. Requests and supporting documentation for revision requests must be submitted to both CMS and the hospital’s MAC. Hospitals must complete the CY 2016 occupational mix surveys separately, and submit them to their MACs by July 3, 2017 in preparation of the Wage Index beginning FFY 2019.
