CMS Releases 2022 Medicare Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) Final Rule

On August 2, 2021, CMS published a final rule for the 2022 Calendar Year Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS)

The final rule, effective October 1, 2021, authorizes additional payments for diagnostics and therapies to treat COVID-19 during the current public health emergency, and beyond. The rule revises payment policies, as well as policies under certain quality and value-based purchasing programs, for hospitals to lessen the adverse impacts of the pandemic. Some of these changes will incentivize the meaningful use of certified electronic health record (EHR) technology that will help public health officials monitor for future public health emergencies.

CMS also finalized a number of other Medicare payment rules, including rules for skilled nursing facilities, inpatient rehabilitation facilities, inpatient psychiatric facilities, and hospice providers. Using lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, these final rules will enact policies that will further protect and deliver better care to Medicare beneficiaries. These payment rules finalized new quality measures to give beneficiaries and their families better insights into the quality of care rendered at hospice facilities and vaccination reporting of facility staff.

The final rule requires hospitals to attest that they are in active engagement with public health agencies to submit data for measures related to nationwide surveillance for early warning of emerging outbreaks and threats; automated case and laboratory reporting for rapid public health response; and visibility on immunization coverage so that public health agencies can tailor vaccine distribution strategies. Hospital reporting of the measures will support public health agencies as they prepare to respond to both future health threats and long-term COVID-19 recovery.

More information is available at the following links:

• Final rule
• Fact sheet