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Inpatient hospitals will see a larger Medicare payment hike next fiscal year than first proposed, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced Tuesday. Acute care hospitals complying with quality reporting rules and electronic health record guidelines will get a 3.1% net increase in Medicare reimbursements in fiscal 2024 under the hospital inpatient prospective payment system final rule. In April, CMS issued a proposed rule that would have boosted reimbursements 2.8%. CMS also set a 0.2% reimbursement increase for long-term care hospitals. (Berryman, 8/1)

Hospitals secured a $2.2 billion increase in Medicare payments for inpatient services in 2024, according to a final rule issued Tuesday. The 3.1% increase is slightly higher than the rate the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services proposed in April. However, the agency did not grant hospitals' request to raise payments further to account for previous underestimates in hospitals costs. (Goldman, 8/1)

Addus HomeCare may pull out of states with low Medicaid reimbursements if the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services moves forward with a proposal requiring states to spend 80% of home- and community-based services funding on caregiver wages. Chair and CEO Dirk Allison challenged the federal government's authority to dictate caregiver wage percentages to states and said a one-size-fits-all mandate would create an administrative nightmare for providers operating across multiple states. Addus HomeCare offers personal care, home health and hospice services in 22 states. (Eastabrook, 8/1)

A widespread Medicaid scam that left an unknown number of Native Americans homeless in metro Phoenix is being declared a public health state of emergency by the Blackfeet Nation of Montana after the Navajo Nation took similar action in June. The scam left an unknown number of Native Americans without shelter in the greater Phoenix area after Arizona’s Medicaid program suspended scores of programs suspected of fraud. The declarations allow the tribes to get staffing and other resources to help people hurt by the scam. (8/1)

The end of the Covid-19 pandemic may mark the beginning of a new spike in opioid overdoses. Millions of Americans are likely to lose their Medicaid as Covid-era protections unwind and while some will find health insurance through Obamacare or their employer, many will become uninsured or underinsured. That has public health and addiction treatment experts concerned that opioid abuse — responsible for over 80,000 deaths in 2021 — is about to spike. (Payne and Messerly, 8/1)