The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued a proposed rule setting 2010 payment rates for hospital-provided inpatient services, the agency said.
CMS proposes to update inpatient acute care hospital rates under the Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) by 2.1%, but to reduce payment rates by a documentation and coding adjustment of 1.9%. CMS is also proposing to update payment rates to long-term care hospitals (LTCHs) under the LTCH Prospective Payment System (PPS) by 2.4%, but to reduce payment rates by a documentation and coding adjustment of 1.8%.
The documentation and coding adjustment ensures that Medicare spending for inpatient stays in hospitals does not increase or decrease as a result of changes in hospitals' coding practices following the adoption of a new inpatient hospital patient classification system in 2008, according to CMS.
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