Final 2023 IPF-PPS Rule Calls for 2.5% Payment Increase to IPFs in 2023
In a final rule released Thursday, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) said total estimated payments to inpatient psychiatric facilities (IPFs) are estimated to increase by 2.5%, or $90 million, in fiscal year 2023 relative to IPF payments in 2022. This is larger than the 1.5% payment increase the agency proposed this spring.
For 2023, CMS is updating the IPF prospective payment system (PPS) rates by 3.8%, based on the final IPF market basket update of 4.1% minus a 0.3 percentage point productivity adjustment.
CMS is also updating the outlier threshold so that estimated outlier payments remain at 2% of total payments. The agency estimates this will result in a 1.2% decrease to aggregate payments, due to updating the outlier threshold. CMS noted that due to rounding, the 3.8% increase to payment rates and the 1.2% decrease to outlier payments yield a 2.5% overall increase in IPF payments.
A fact
sheet from CMS highlights the final rule’s major provisions, including a permanent 5% cap policy to ease the impact of year-to-year changes in IPF payments related to decreases in the IPF wage index.
Finally, CMS did not make final any changes for the IPF Quality Reporting Program in the 2023 final rule.
Gov. Phil Murphy Announces ‘Strengthening Youth Mental Health Care’ as NGA Chair’s Initiative
Incoming National Governors Association (NGA) Chair Gov. Phil Murphy (D-N.J.) announced “Strengthening Youth Mental Health Care” is his chair’s initiative as he leads the organization from 2022-2023.
“We are all aware of the youth mental health crisis in our country,” Murphy said during the closing session of the NGA’s summer meeting in Portland, Maine. “It is a crisis that the pandemic did not create but exposed more fully,” he added. “It is one that we must tackle together, and tackle now.”
Murphy also acknowledged access-to-care problems and highlighted the four pillars of his chair’s initiative: prevention and resilience building; increasing awareness and reducing stigma; access and affordability of quality treatment and care; and caregiver and educator training and support.
Click
here to read more about Murphy’s initiative.
Opioid Response Network & National Association of Counties Offer Guidance on Managing Opioid Litigation Funds
The Opioid Response Network (ORN) and the National Association of Counties (NACo) have partnered to strengthen the association’s new Opioid Solutions Initiative and resource center, which offers guidance to U.S. counties about how to use funding from litigation between states and opioid manufacturers and distributors.
The support center provides guidance on managing opioid litigation funds, information about effective substance use prevention, treatment and recovery approaches that are approved uses of settlement funds, case studies on evidence-based practices, and — with help from the ORN — free, on-demand education and training.
Click
here to read more about NACo’s Opioid Solutions Center and click
here to submit requests for free education and training.
NABH Annual Membership Update: 2022 Membership Directory
NABH is developing its online-only 2022 Membership Directory, an essential member benefit that helps the asssociation in its advocacy efforts.
Earlier this week, NABH sent its system members a separate message that includes a link to the association’s membership-update tool. To help ensure we have the most accurate information on our members, please use the link to our membership-update tool and verify your system’s information.
NABH has added several new categories this year. The answers to these questions will help us provide a more accurate description of our diverse membership to policymakers, regulators, partner organizations, and the media.
Please be sure to enter information for all of your system’s facilities so that we have a better picture of our diverse membership.
The deadline to submit your changes to NABH is
Friday, Aug. 19, 2022. If you need assistance, please contact Maria Merlie at
maria@nabh.org. Thank you!
Enhanced NABH Denial-of-Care Portal is Now Available!
NABH recently made enhancements to its Denial-of-Care Portal that are intended to make the portal easier for members to use.
A year ago, NABH developed the Denial-of-Care Portal to collect specific data on insurers who deny care—often without regard to parity or the effects on patients. Now the association has updated this resource to make it more user-friendly for members and also more aligned with what regulators need to identify parity violations.
The updated portal includes fewer questions, which will require less time for members to complete. In addition, all questions are now optional. NABH hopes this will make it more likely for members to share the data they have. Lastly, NABH has added a checklist of “red flags” that were included in the
2022 MHPAEA Report to Congress from the U.S. Health and Human Services, Labor, and Treasury Departments in January.
“We know the best way to advocate for parity enforcement with regulators is to provide hard data from our members that show how insurers are not complying with the landmark 2008 parity law,” said NABH President and CEO Shawn Coughlin. “We hope these new changes will make it easier—and faster—for our members to use so that we can gather that critical data.”
Please e-mail
Emily Wilkins, NABH’s administrative coordinator, if you have questions about the portal.
Save the Date for the NABH 2023 Annual Meeting!
Please mark your calendars and plan to join us in Washington, DC from
June 12-14, 2023 for next year’s NABH Annual Meeting!
Fact of the Week
Calls to the new, national
988 behavioral health crisis hotline increased by 45% during the week after it transitioned to a three-digit number from a longer one.
For questions or comments about this CEO Update, please contact Jessica Zigmond