CMS proposed lowering its reimbursement rate for dialysis and end-stage renal disease patients by $970 million in 2014. The office is seeking public comment on the move through August 30.
The proposed rule would take effect Jan. 1, 2014, paying all Medicare end-stage renal disease facilities 100 percent under its prospective payment system. Medicare's ESRD program covers about 85 percent of the 400,000 people with kidney failure in the U.S., according to a release by Kidney Care Partners, a nephrologist and nephrology services advocacy group.
The rule also would make adjustments to Medicare's ESRD Quality Incentive Program beginning in fiscal year 2016 that would cut payments by about $26.4 million that year and change the program's durable medical equipment payment policies to require the goods to be useable for at least three years to be categorized as durable medical equipment.
More Articles on CMS:
OIG: CMS Should Tighten Accounting Practices to Obtain $543M in Overpayments
UnitedHealth to Take Individual Business Out of California
From ICUs to PCMHs: Addressing Quality Across the Continuum of Care