Earlier this week, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a final rule outlining the Federal Fiscal Year 2020 (FFY 2020) Medicare prospective payment system rate update and quality reporting requirements for skilled nursing facilities (SNFs). The FFY 2020 final rule establishes a market basket increase of 2.4 percent, a figure statutorily mandated by Congress, and will start October 1, 2019. The Final Rule makes no material changes to the scheduled implementation of the Patient-Driven Payment Model (PDPM), which replaces the Resource Utilization Group IV (RUG-IV). And, of note, the final rule codifies the proposed definition of group therapy. It allows groups of between two and six patients to be treated starting October 1, 2019. With regard to education and training for PDPM, please note that to accommodate an overwhelming response from our members, the August 19th ICD-10 Diagnosis Training for Skilled Nursing Facilities and the August 20th Patient Drive Payment Model for Billing Staff seminars have both been moved to the Hilton Garden Inn, 450 Totten Pond Road in Waltham. |