More than 140 members of Congress have written to Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure asking her to implement a bigger increase in Medicare payments for hospital inpatient services than the agency has proposed for FY 2023.
According to separate bipartisan letters from House and Senate members, the proposed FY 2023 increase – 2.8 percent – fails to reflect inflation and rising health care staffing costs. The letter signed by 112 House members states that
We worry the proposed payment updates do not accurately reflect today’s cost of patient care and, when tethered with other policy changes included in the proposed rule, would result in a payment decrease for IPPS [Medicare inpatient prospective payment system] hospitals in FY 2023. We respectfully urge CMS to further evaluate this proposal and consider using its special exceptions and adjustments authority to revise the final IPPS rule to ensure hospitals have the resources they need to provide optimal care.
Learn more from the Fierce Healthcare article “142 bipartisan lawmakers push CMS to reconsider inpatient payment rule updates” and from the House letter.