2010 Medicare inpatient rule
This article was originally published in The Gray Sheet
Executive Summary
In its final rule released July 31, CMS pulled back on an earlier proposal to negatively offset the 2010 hospital inpatient payment update by 1.9%. The proposed offset was intended to correct for what CMS says were Medicare overpayments in 2008, but the agency was convinced that more data was needed to support the change. Device analysts had been concerned that such a cut would have increased pricing pressures on some devices (1"The Gray Sheet" May 11, 2009). In 2010, acute care hospitals will receive a positive payment update of 2.1%