WSHA recently commented on the Medicare Inpatient Prospective Payment System (IPPS) hospital FFY 2020 proposed payment rule, which was released May 3, 2019. The proposed rule includes a proposal to increase payment for the quartile of prospective payment system hospitals with the lowest wage index by reducing wage index for the PPS hospitals in the top quartile and applying an additional budget neutrality adjustment reduction to all PPS hospitals. Under the proposal, all 48 of Washington’s PPS hospitals would experience reduction in their wage index payment. WSHA’s comments opposed this provision of the proposed rule.
Overall, the proposed changes under the rule would provide hospitals in Washington State with an estimated increase of 1.8 percent or an additional $40 million. The impact varies among hospitals, ranging from a positive $4.2 million to a negative $1 million. Nationally, payments are estimated to increase in aggregate by 3.1 percent or an additional $3.7 billion.
