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Volume 12 Number 153 News: Medicare The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is facing continued criticism for its decision to maintain the 75 percent rule for inpatient rehabilitation facilities, codified in its Aug. 7 final IRF prospective payment system (PPS) rule (72 Fed. Reg. 44283), which is effective Oct. 1. The provision will require in 2008 that three-fourths of an IRF's total inpatient population need intensive multidisciplinary inpatient rehabilitation and have one or more of 13 designated medical conditions to receive higher payment and to be classified as an IRF (No. 128 HCDR 7/5/07). "CMS has clearly continued its march to reduce the availability of high quality care with highly successful outcomes for all patients--the young and the disabled, as well as Medicare patients," Kathleen Yosko, president of the American Medical Rehabilitation Providers Association's (AMRPA) board of directors, said in an Aug. 4 release. The group also decried CMS's decision to discontinue its comorbidity policy, which included patients with certain secondary medical characteristics in the rule's scope. "CMS continues to believe that these patients--at least 30,000--will be adequately served in other settings, beginning next year. AMRPA and others disagree," the group said in its release, claiming that the agency "rejected all comments received."
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