The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (“PPACA”) mandated the adoption of the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program ("HRRP"), which will reduce payments under the inpatient prospective payment system (“IPPS”) to those hospitals with high readmission rates for patients with certain conditions. This policy change provides a powerful incentive to coordinate care and standardize procedures across providers. The HRRP will go into effect beginning in fiscal year 2013. CMS has published a Final Rule implementing certain portions of the HRRP, and recently published Proposed Rules to implement other aspects of the program.

As a result of this new payment policy, short-term acute care hospitals will look to skilled nursing facilities (“SNF”), long-term acute care hospitals (“LTCH”), inpatient rehabilitation facilities (“IRF”) and other post-acute care providers for assistance in avoiding costly readmissions for patients with certain medical conditions. As new programs and regulations continue to be implemented under the PPACA, it is important for both acute and post-acute providers to be aware of new provisions that might significantly impact Medicare reimbursement.

In this teleseminar, Paul Pitts and Rachel Golick will review the provisions of the HRRP and associated rulemaking activity, and outline best practices for avoiding reductions in Medicare reimbursements.

Topics include:

• Purpose and practical implications of the HRRP and related rulemaking activity
• Impact of the HRRP on post-acute care providers
• Construction of the HRRP with "interrupted stay" regulations applicable to LTCHs and IRFs
• Additional challenges to Medicare payment rates arising from implementation of the HRRP

View the attached invitation to learn more.

We have prepared an analysis on the new Medicare payment policy on readmissions, which explores the related issues in more depth and scope. Click here to read the full client alert.