Medicare DSH payments would reflect hospitals’ Medicare Advantage inpatient days under a new regulation proposed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Under the newly proposed rule, the formula for calculating Medicare disproportionate share payments would incorporate hospitals’ Medicare Advantage inpatient days and not just their fee-for-service inpatient days.

Medicare DSH payments are made to hospitals that serve especially high proportions of low-income and uninsured patients and are intended to help them with the cost of providing those services.  All private safety-net hospitals qualify for Medicare DSH payments and consider the program an essential tool in their efforts to serve their communities.

The National Alliance of Safety-Net Hospitals will review the proposed regulation and model its potential impact on private safety-net hospitals.  As appropriate, NASH also will submit formal comments to CMS.

Go here to see the proposed regulation.