On August 1, 2017, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced it was giving a rate raise to Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNF) of 1 percent, or a an estimated total raise of $370 million for Fiscal Year 2018. For perspective, nursing home operators have been contending Medicaid payments fall $23 to $25 per resident per day, or $7 billion a year, short of what they need to provide adequate care.
CMS issued the following statement.
The 2018 Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) Prospective Payment System Final Rule increases Medicare payment rates by 1.0 percent for FY 2018, as statutorily-required by section 411(a) of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA), which is an aggregate impact of $370 million from payments in FY 2017. The rule revises and rebases the SNF market basket index by updating the base year data from FY 2010 to 2014 and by adding a new cost category for Installation, Maintenance, and Repair Services. The rule also finalizes updates to the SNF Quality Reporting Program, including replacing the pressure ulcer measure with an updated version, adopting new functional status measures and publicly displaying new measures. In addition, it finalizes policies for the SNF Value-Based Purchasing Program for FY 2019, the first year this program will impact Medicare payments and the requirements regarding the composition of professionals for the survey team.