Proposed 2009 IRF Payment Rule
View the whole report at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/InpatientRehabFacPPS/downloads/cms-1554-p-display.pdf .

In December 2007, Congress passed and President Bush signed into law, the Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP Extension Act, which set the inpatient rehabilitation facility payment update at zero and gave hospitals a wider berth in the patients they can admit by rolling back the so-called “75% rule” to 60%. That figure represents the minimum percentage of a hospital’s patients that must have one of 13 medical conditions requiring intensive rehabilitation treatment. If the percentage is met, the inpatient rehab facility would then qualify for higher reimbursement. Medicare is the biggest payer of IRF services, accounting for about 70% of discharges, according to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission.
Inpatient rehabilitation facilities, or IRF, won’t see an increase in Medicare payments this year or next, even though CMS said it expects to spend about $5.4 billion in fiscal 2009 for the highly specialized care that such facilities offer—and about $30 billion over the next five years. In addition, CMS said in its proposed 2009 IRF payment rule that it plans to use more current payment data to set future IRF reimbursement rates.

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