Medicare Cost Report Changes
To implement the U.S District Court’s decision in GME Solutions’ assisted appeal, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center v. Becerra, No. 19-cv-2680, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (“CMS”) issued Transmittal 18 to revise the Medicare cost report instructions to update the methodology adopted in the Fiscal Year 2023 Inpatient Prospective Payment System Final rule which eliminated the penalty for hospitals training residents/fellows in excess of their FTE caps.
Hospitals operating over the FTE cap will be reimbursed for the lower of the FTE cap or the current year weighted FTEs. The revised instructions will also permit the hospitals to calculate the prior and penultimate year FTEs utilizing the same methodology.
In addition, the Transmittal includes instructions to report additional FTE slots awarded under Section 126 of the Consolidated Appropriation Act of 2021 (“ACT”) and reset the per resident amounts and FTE caps under Section 131 of the Act.
The Transmittal also included revisions to Worksheet S-10 Uncompensated Care Cost, Medicare bad debt and Medicare Disproportionate Share Hospital reporting. The Transmittal is available for download on CMS’s website. R18P240i | CMS