FFY 2023 IPPS Final Rule: Graduate Medical Education (GME)
CMS finalized the change to the cost report formula for calculating Direct GME payments in cases where a hospital’s FTE count exceeds its FTE cap. Under the final rule, if the hospital’s unweighted FTE count exceeds the FTE cap, and the number of weighted FTE residents also exceeds the FTE cap, the respective primary care and OB/GYN weighted FTE counts and other weighted FTE counts are adjusted to make the total weighted FTE count equal to the FTE cap. This change would be effective retroactively for cost reporting periods beginning on or after October 1, 2001.
CMS also finalized a rule to allow urban and rural hospitals that participate in the same separately accredited 1-2 family medicine rural training track (RTT) program1, that already have RTT FTE limitations, to enter into “Rural Track Medicare GME Affiliation Agreements” for academic years beginning July 1, 2023. Programs that are not separately accredited in the 1-2 format and that are not in family medicine, would not be permitted to enter into these agreements under CMS’s rule.
For more information, please contact Tom Hubner at (925) 685-9312 or tom.hubner@toyonassociates.com.
1 1-2 RTT format is 1 year of training in a large, urban residency program followed by 2 years in a rural community.