The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is expected to provide an Update Notice for the Skilled Nursing Facility Prospective Payment System (SNF PPS) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2013. This Notice, expected on or before July 31, 2012, would be issued rather than theFinal Rule which providers generally face annually. The planned issuance of this Update Notice indicates that, at this time, there are no policy changes planned that require proposed rule making, a comment period and, ultimately, a Final Rule.
CMS reports that the definitive amounts of the market basket update along with the productivity adjustment mandated by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) will not be finalized until summer and therefore cannot be confirmed at this time. In an April, 2012 communication from the American Healthcare Association (AHCA), the following was reported to be expected: “a market basket update of approximately 2.6%” combined with the mandated “productivity adjustment of 0.8%” to net providers an “approximate 1.8% SNF payment update”. Additionally, the Association reports that a Market Basket forecasting error correction is not expected for this coming fiscal year.
