CMS Final Rule Confirms 2% Payment Increase for Skilled Nursing Facilities

​The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has issued a final rule updating the payment rates used under the prospective payment system for fiscal year (FY) 2015. According to the rule, in FY 2015, the payment rate update will be 2.0%, which will result in an increase of $750 million in payments to skilled nursing facilities during FY 2015. In addition, it adopts the most recent Office of Management and Budget statistical area delineations to identify a facility's urban or rural status. It will also let providers complete a change-of-therapy Other Medicare Required Assessment for residents who are not currently classified into a Resource Utilization Group, Version 4 (RUG-IV) therapy group or receiving a level of therapy sufficient for classification into a RUG-IV therapy group, but only when the resident had qualified for a RUG-IV therapy group on a prior assessment during the resident's current Medicare Part A stay and his or her therapy services had not been discontinued.