Health and Human Services Department, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Agriculture Department, Commodity Credit Corporation
We are revising the Medicare hospital inpatient prospective payment systems (IPPS) for operating and capital-related costs to implement changes arising from our continuing experience with these systems; and to implement a number of changes made by the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 that was enacted on December 8, 2003. In addition, in the Addendum to this final rule, we describe the changes to the amounts and factors used to determine the rates for Medicare hospital inpatient services for operating costs and capital-related costs. These changes are applicable to discharges occurring on or after October 1, 2004. We also are setting forth rate-of-increase limits as well as policy changes for hospitals and hospital units excluded from the IPPS that are paid in full or in part on a reasonable cost basis subject to these limits. Among the policy changes that we are making are: Changes to the classification of cases to the diagnosis-related groups (DRGs); changes to the long-term care (LTC)-DRGs and relative weights; changes in the wage data, labor-related share of the wage index, and the geographic area designations used to compute the wage index; changes in the qualifying threshold criteria for and the approval of new technologies and medical services for add-on payments; changes to the policies governing postacute care transfers; changes to payments to hospitals for the direct and indirect costs of graduate medical education; changes to the payment adjustment for disproportionate share rural hospitals; changes in requirements and payments to critical access hospitals (CAHs); changes to the disclosure of information requirements for Quality Improvement Organization (QIOs); and changes in the hospital conditions of participation for discharge planning and fire safety requirements for certain health care facilities.
Document Headings Document headings vary by document type but may contain the following: the agency or agencies that issued and signed a document the number of the CFR title and the number of each part the document amends, proposes to amend, or is directly related to the agency docket number / agency internal file number the RIN which identifies each regulatory action listed in the Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions See the Document Drafting Handbook for more details. Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services 42 CFR Parts 403, 412, 413, 418, 460, 480, 482, 483, 485, and 489 [CMS-1428-F] RIN 0938-AM80 Department of Agriculture Commodity Credit Corporation 7 CFR Part 1435 RIN 0560-AH08 AGENCY: Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), HHS. ACTION: Final rule. SUMMARY: We are revising the Medicare hospital inpatient prospective payment systems (IPPS) for operating and capital-related costs to implement changes arising from our continuing experience with these systems; and to implement a number of changes made by the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 that was enacted on December 8, 2003. In addition, in the Addendum to this final rule, we describe the changes to the amounts and factors used to determine the rates for Medicare hospital inpatient services for operating costs and capital-related costs. These changes are applicable to discharges occurring on or after October 1, 2004. We also are setting forth rate-of-increase limits as well as policy changes for hospitals and hospital units excluded from the IPPS that are paid in full or in part on a reasonable cost basis subject to these limits. Among the policy changes that we are making are: Changes to the classification of cases to the diagnosis-related groups (DRGs); changes to the long-term care (LTC)-DRGs and relative weights; changes in the wage data, labor-related share of the wage index, and the geogr…
Citation: 69 FR 48916
