Government Healthcare Policy, Business and Technology

CMS gives hospitals $2 billion raise, finalizes unpopular uncompensated care plan

Modern Healthcare: The CMS will give a $2.4 billion raise to inpatient hospitals in fiscal 2018.The increase is less than the $3.1 billion the agency proposed in April, but exceeds the $746 million bump hospitals received in fiscal 2017.In its final rule for the inpatient prospective payment system, released late Wednesday, the CMS also announced it was moving forward with plans to change the way it reimburses uncompensated care even though the approach was panned by the hospital industry.The agency will distribute $6.8 billion in uncompensated-care funds in fiscal 2018, about a $1 billion hike from the prior year. This change reflects the CMS' proposal to use new data to estimate the rate of uninsurance, which calculates the total amount of uncompensated-care payments available.

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