Editor's note: This is the first in a two-part series that analyzes the 2014 inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS) final rule. This month we discuss the final rule's impact on inpatient status criteria. We will address quality-of-care changes in the next issue of MRB.
CMS finalized a documentation and coding adjustment (DCA) of -2% for fiscal year (FY) 2012, according to the inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS) final rule. CMS originally proposed a year-over-year reduction of 0.5% in payments to acute care hospitals, including a DCA of -3.15%. However, CMS finalized a cut of 2%, a decrease from 2.9% in FY 2011, which translates to $1.13 billion more in hospital payments in FY 2012 than hospitals received the previous year.
