Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility PPS: Final Rule for FY 2022

AHA Regulatory Advisory
August 26, 2021

Download the Regulatory Advisory PDF

At A Glance

On July 29, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued its fiscal year (FY) 2022 final rule for the inpatient rehabilitation facility (IRF) prospective payment system (PPS). Most provisions in the rule take effect Oct. 1.

AHA Take

We appreciate that this relatively brief final rule, which sets forth required payment updates and several COVID-19-related changes to the IRF Quality Reporting Program (QRP), allows the field to concentrate on their local COVID-19 responses. This is especially critical as many communities continue to experience surges of the virus.

What You Can Do

  • Share the attached summary with your senior management team to examine the impact these payment changes will have on your organization in FY 2022.
  • At www.aha.org/postacute, review the online recording and materials from the Aug. 10 member call that AHA hosted on this and other FY 2022 post-acute final rules.

Further Questions

For questions about payment provisions, contact Rochelle Archuleta, AHA’s director of policy, at rarchuleta@aha.org.For quality-related questions, contact Caitlin Gillooley, AHA’s senior associate director of policy, at cgillooley@aha.org.

Key Takeaways

The rule:

  • Increases IRF payments by 1.5% ($130 million) in FY 2022.
  • Adopts one new measure and revises schedules for publicly reported data affected by COVID-19 reporting exemptions.