Medicare won't raise inpatient rehab payments soon

It's looking like Medicare isn't going to raise payments to inpatient rehab facilities anytime soon, though it will spend about $5.4 billion in fiscal 2009 for IRF care. CMS is following direction provided by Congress, which gave the instructions not to change IRF payment levels this year. However, Congress did give these hospitals a little bit of a break by rolling back the percentage of patients classified as needing intensive rehab to 60 percent. Right now, 75 percent of the patients IRFs are taking care of must have one of 13 medical conditions considered to qualify for such services.

To learn more about rehab compensation:
- read this Modern Healthcare piece [1] (reg. req.)

Related Articles:
Nursing homes seek profitable rehab patients [2]
Outpatient rehab merger creates major U.S. player [3]