HSCRC Approves One-Time $22M MPA Increase and Set Aside Increase
It has been another busy week at the Association. On Wednesday we made comments at the Health Services Cost Review Commission (HSCRC) public meeting to emphasize the disparity between hospital financial challenges and the excess savings being generated. I was joined by Liz Sweeney of Nutshell Associates who spoke to the financial stressors hospitals currently face and Tequila Terry, MHA’s SVP of Care Transformation and Finance, who emphasized hospital and health system needs for readiness as we go into AHEAD.
We told the commissioners the current operating environment has been exceptionally challenging, and hospitals continue to grapple with rising expenses that have significantly increased since the beginning of the pandemic. At the same time, hospitals across the state are successfully caring for communities well beyond the aims of the Model and have created significant excess savings.
HSCRC has received set-aside funding requests totaling $180 million, and believe approximately $81 million may merit funding, but HSCRC staff initially recommended $60 million as adequate for the set-aside. At the meeting we encouraged increasing set-aside funding to $81 million to cover all qualifying requests, and the Commission agreed.
Based on our testimony, HSCRC also approved a retroactive correction to the Medicare Performance Adjustment (MPA) savings target for calendar years 2020 to 2024 that will result in a $22 million increase to hospital rewards. This is encouraging, and the last step here is garnering Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) approval.
We will continue to work with HSCRC to implement both changes in calendar year 2024. Your feedback and guidance are critical as your MHA Team continues to build a more favorable financial environment for our hospitals and health systems.
Keep reaching out to me and the rest of our team with your ideas, questions, and concerns.
Melony G. Griffith
President & CEO