What’s happening: Four additional CMS skilled nursing facility value-based purchasing (SNF VBP) measures take effect October 1, 2024 which will determine Medicare Part A rates beginning October 1, 2026.

• These measures are in addition to the four measures already in place that impact rates starting on October 1, 2025.
• Understanding all eight measures and adopting best practices now will help avoid Part A payment penalties and potentially boost future Medicare incentive payments.

What you need to know: Administrators, DONs, finance, QAPI, and operations leaders should be familiar with the eight measures and understand how they impact future reimbursement rates.

• ahcancalED’s SNF VBP Essentials is a one-hour course that details the new CMS measures and discusses how CMS calculates VBP measures, risk adjustment, facility score, and payment adjustments. The course provides instructions on using a SNF VBP prediction calculator tool (included with the course) that helps estimate the financial impact the measures will have on a nursing facility’s Medicare Part A revenue.

About the course: The training delves into all eight measures which are:

• Hospital Readmissions
• Healthcare Acquired Infection Hospitalizations
• Long-stay Hospitalizations
• Discharge to Community
• Discharge Function Score
• Total Nurse Turnover
• Total Nurse Hours Per Resident Day
• Long-stay Falls with Major Injury

Registration for SNF VBP Essentials is $40 for members and $80 for non-members.

• The course is approved  for 1.25 NAB CEs and 1.00 contact hour through the Iowa Board of Nursing upon course completion.
• Individuals must login to ahcancalED and register for the course under their individual login. Members will need to login with their AHCA/NCAL usernames and passwords. For assistance obtaining AHCA/NCAL usernames and passwords, please e-mail educate@ahca.org with your name and facility contact information.