In a June 9 letter commenting on CMS' Inpatient Prospective Payment System proposed rule, the American Hospital Association urged the agency to adjust the market basket update to account for what it missed in the 2022 forecast and eradicate the productivity cut on the table for 2024.
"These [proposed] payment updates ignore the fact that hospitals and health systems have continued to face unprecedented increases in labor costs and other supply costs," the AHA wrote. "They fail to account for the fact that labor composition and costs have not reverted to 'normal' levels and that as a result, the hospital field have continued to face sustained financial pressures."
The letter comes two months after CMS pitched its inpatient rule for fiscal year 2024, which proposed a market basket update of 3 percent less a productivity adjustment of 0.2 percentage points, resulting in a net update of 2.8 percent.
"This update, especially when taken together with the [fiscal year] 2022 payment update of 2.7 percent, continues to be woefully inadequate," according to the AHA.
The AHA has called on CMS to get rid of the productivity cut for 2024. It also wants the agency to enact a retrospective adjustment for 2024 to account for the difference between the market basket update that was implemented for 2022 and what the currently projected market basket is for 2022.
The AHA also highlighted its Metropolitan Anchor Hospital proposal to support safety net providers and voiced its support for a proposed health equity adjustment in the hospital value-based purchasing program.
Click here to read the letter.