The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released on July 31 the federal fiscal year (FFY) 2019 final payment rule for the skilled nursing facility (SNF) prospective payment system (PPS). The final rule reflects the annual updates to the Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) SNF payment rates and policies. The SDAHO brief summary of the major SNF sections of the proposed rule is provided with page numbers noted from the display copy of the Federal Register (FR) version of the proposed rule.
Program changes finalized by CMS will be effective for discharges on or after Oct. 1 unless otherwise noted. CMS estimates the overall economic impact of this final payment rate update to be an increase of $820 million in aggregate payments to SNFs in FFY 2019 over FFY 2018 and the final SNF value-based purchasing impact to be an estimated reduction of $211 million in FFY 2019.
SDAHO’s impact analysis of the SNF final rule is expected to be released later this week.
