Source: United States Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND)
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND) issued the following statement following the release of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Fiscal Year (FY) 2023 final rule for inpatient and long-term care hospitals:
“After urging CMS to reconsider payment updates for acute care hospitals to account for the increase in expenses from the COVID pandemic, supply chain crisis, and record-high inflation, I’m pleased to see the agency heed our calls. The final rule increases payments to better reflect the cost of providing hospital care today. These inpatient and long-term care facilities are critical to providing quality health care, especially in rural states like North Dakota.”
The FY 2023 final rule for the inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS) provided an increase in adjusting payments to 4.1%.
In late July, Senator Cramer and Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) led 30 bipartisan colleagues in a letter to CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure expressing concerns over the proposed payment updates including its IPPS proposed rule for FY 2023.
“We are concerned that the proposed payment updates do not fully account for the current cost of care and when coupled with other policy changes incorporated in the proposed rule, will result in an overall payment reduction for hospitals in FY 2023. We request that CMS consider using its special exceptions and adjustments authority to update the proposed payment update in the final IPPS rule,” wrote the senators.