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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services late today issued a to update skilled nursing facility payment rates for fiscal year 2022. The rule would update payments by a net 1.3% relative to FY 2021 ($444 million), which includes a 2.3% market basket, a 0.2 percentage point productivity reduction and a forecast error adjustment to account for prior overpayment. CMS also would update the diagnosis code mappings used in the case-mix system implemented in FY 2021, and rebase and revise the SNF market basket. 

CMS also proposes to adopt two new quality measures beginning in FY 2023. One would assess the rate of COVID-19 vaccination among health care personnel, and the other would calculate healthcare-associated infections acquired in SNFs based on claims for subsequent hospitalizations. For the SNF Value-based Purchasing program, CMS proposes to suppress data for the single measure used in that program due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and instead will issue a uniform 1.2% payback percentage to participating SNFs with sufficient case volume rather than determining payment adjustments based on performance.

Comments on this rule are due to CMS by June 7.