2021 Hospital Final Rule: A Mixed Bag for Hospital Administrators

On September 2, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued the fiscal year (FY) 2021 Medicare Hospital Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) and Long Term Acute Care Hospital (LTACH) final rule, which includes "important provisions designed to ensure access to potentially life-saving diagnostics and therapies for hospitalized Medicare beneficiaries." According to a CMS press release, the changes will affect approximately 3,200 acute care hospitals and approximately 360 LTACHs. The agency estimates that total Medicare spending on acute care inpatient hospital services will increase by about $3.5 billion in FY 2021, representing an uptick of 2.7 percent over FY 2020.