The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
have put on display at the Federal Register a proposed rule that will be
formally issued on Friday, February 7, 2003, or Monday, February 10, 2003. It
provides for a reduction in allowable bad debt reimbursement to all providers
eligible to receive bad debt.
Currently only hospitals are subject to a reduction in allowable bad debt.
Hospitals' bad debt reimbursement has been reduced by 30 percent, as required by
Congress in the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Benefits Improvement and
Protection Act of 2000 (BIPA).
Providers affected by the proposed rule include skilled nursing facilities,
rural health clinics, critical access hospitals, community mental health
clinics, and federally qualified health clinics. The rule also removes the cap
on allowable bad debt for end-stage renal disease facilities. It calls for a
graduated decline in bad debt reimbursement as follows:
I do not as yet have an electronic copy of the
proposed rule but am trying to get it scanned. If we are successful, I will
email you the scanned copy. I will also email out the official one just as soon
as CMS issues it.
