Rural Hospitals – News
News stories from the past 60 days.
CMS: Medicare Program; FY 2026 Inpatient Psychiatric Facilities Prospective Payment System-Rate Update
Federal Register
Aug 5, 2025 - Notice of a final rule from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) updating the FY 2026 prospective payment rates, outlier threshold, and wage index for Medicare inpatient hospital services provided by inpatient psychiatric facilities (IPF), including psychiatric hospitals and excluded psychiatric units of an acute care hospital or Critical Access Hospital. Includes a revision to the payment adjustment factors for teaching status and for IPFs in rural areas. These changes will be effective for IPF discharges occurring during the fiscal year beginning October 1, 2025, through September 30, 2026. This final rule also includes changes to measures used in the Inpatient Psychiatric Facilities Quality Reporting (IPFQR) Program and changes to update and codify the Extraordinary Circumstances Exception policy. These changes are effective October 1, 2025.
Source: Federal Register
Aug 5, 2025 - Notice of a final rule from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) seeking comments on updates to the prospective payment system for inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs) for fiscal year 2026. Among other things, this rule proposes classification and weighting factors for the IRF prospective payment system's case-mix groups, continues the second year of the 3-year phase-out of the rural adjustments, and includes proposals for the IRF Quality Reporting Program. This final rule is effective October 1, 2025.
Source: Federal Register
Aug 4, 2025 - Notice of final rule from the Centers revising the hospital inpatient prospective payment system (IPPS) for operating and capital-related costs of acute care hospitals for fiscal year 2026. This rule also makes changes related to Medicare graduate medical education (GME) for teaching hospitals; updates payment policies and the annual payment rates for the Medicare prospective payment system (PPS) for inpatient hospital services provided by long-term care hospitals; updates and make changes to requirements for certain quality programs; and finalizes certain updates to the ONC Health Information Technology (IT) Certification Program among other things. These final rules are effective October 1, 2025.
Source: Federal Register
Jul 18, 2025 - The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is
seeking comments on a proposed information collection
project titled "National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN)."
This information collection is designed to provides
facilities, states, regions, and the nation with data
necessary to identify problem areas, measure the progress
of prevention efforts, and ultimately eliminate
healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) nationwide.
Comments are due by September 16, 2025.
Source: Federal Register
Jul 17, 2025 - Notice of a proposed rule from the Centers
for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) making changes to
the Medicare Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System
(OPPS) and the Medicare Ambulatory Surgical Center (ASC)
payment system for calendar year 2026, including changes to
the amounts and factors used to determine the payment rates
for Medicare services paid under the OPPS and those paid
under the ASC payment systems. Among other updates, this
rule also proposes updates related to the requirements for
the Hospital Outpatient Quality Reporting Program, Rural
Emergency Hospital Quality Reporting Program, Ambulatory
Surgical Center Quality Reporting Program, Overall Hospital
Quality Star Rating, and hospitals to make public their
standard charge information and enforcement of hospital
price transparency. Comments are due September 15, 2025.
Source: Federal Register
Last Updated: 8/4/2025