
Disproportionate share hospital payments Provider Payment Medicaid disproportionate share hospital (DSH) payments are statutorily required payments intended to offset hospitals’ uncompensated care costs to improve access for Medicaid and uninsured patients as well as the financial stability of safety-net hospitals.
When do disproportionate share hospital (DSH) allotment reductions begin?
On September 23, 2019, CMS released a final rule to implement statutorily required disproportionate share hospital (DSH) allotment reductions that are scheduled to begin in FY2020. The rule finalizes a methodology to calculate the annual reductions for FY2020 through FY2025.
What is the proposed rulemaking for Medicaid disproportionate share hospital allotments?
On July 27, 2017, CMS issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) regarding Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital allotment reductions. This NPRM proposes a methodology to implement the annual reductions to state Medicaid DSH allotments for FY 2018 through FY 2025 as required by the Affordable Care Act.
What is a disproportionate share hospital payment?
Disproportionate share hospital payments. Medicaid disproportionate share hospital (DSH) payments are statutorily required payments intended to offset hospitals’ uncompensated care costs to improve access for Medicaid and uninsured patients as well as the financial stability of safety-net hospitals.
Is there a limit on DSH payments to a single hospital?
Hospital-specific DSH payment limits. Federal statute also limits the amount of DSH payments that a state can make to any single hospital.

What is DSH Medicare?
Medicare Disproportionate Share Payments (better known as DSH) are a critical component of overall Medicare inpatient payments and help offset the costs of care hospitals incur treating indigent patients.
What is the Medicare disproportionate payment percentage?
A hospital is eligible for a Medicare DSH payment under the primary qualifying method when its DPP meets or exceeds 15%.
How is DSH calculated?
Because Hospital A is located in an urban area, has less than 100 beds, and has a DSH patient percentage of more than 20.2%, the formula for determining the Medicare DSH adjustment is: 5.88% + [. 825 x (DSH % - 20.2%)]. Urban hospitals with less than 100 beds are subject to a maximum DSH adjustment of 12%.
What is disproportionate share adjustment?
A payment adjustment under Medicare's PPS for Medicaid utilization at hospitals that serve a relatively large volume of low-income patients, pregnant patients or other patients under the Medicaid program.
Is DSH the same as 340B?
Disproportionate share hospitals (DSH) are eligible to participate in 340B if their DSH adjustment–a measure that identifies hospitals that treat a disproportionate share of low income Medicare or Medicaid patients–is above 11.75%.
What is capital DSH?
known as the capital disproportionate share hospital (DSH) payment, for hospitals that are. known as the capital disproportionate share hospital (DSH) payment, for hospitals that are. classified as urban and have 100 or more beds.
What is considered a hospital acquired condition?
A Hospital Acquired Condition (HAC) is a medical condition or complication that a patient develops during a hospital stay, which was not present at admission. In most cases, hospitals can prevent HACs when they give care that research shows gets the best results for most patients.
What does Medicare Part A pay for?
Part A covers inpatient hospital stays, care in a skilled nursing facility, hospice care, and some home health care. coverage if you or your spouse paid Medicare taxes for a certain amount of time while working. This is sometimes called "premium-free Part A." Most people get premium-free Part A.
What makes a hospital critical access?
Critical Access Hospitals must be located in rural areas and must meet one of the following criteria: Be more than a 35-mile drive from another hospital, or. Be more than a 15-mile drive from another hospital in an area with mountainous terrain or only secondary roads.
What is OBRA limit?
The OBRA '93 annual compensation limit is $150,000, as adjusted by the Commissioner for increases in the cost of living in accordance with section 401(a)(17)(B) of the Internal Revenue Code.
What is an outlier payment?
Medicare makes supplemental payments to hospitals, known as outlier payments, which are designed to protect hospitals from significant financial losses resulting from patient-care cases that are extraordinarily costly.
What is the overall Medicare claims improper payment amount each year?
In total, Medicare improper payments were estimated to be $43 billion in fiscal year 2020. However, the amount of improper payments made in Medicare are significant, accounting for over one-quarter of the total amount of improper payments made government-wide in fiscal year 2019.
How are Medicare Advantage payments calculated?
Payment to Medicare Advantage plans are made based on bids at or below the average cost of FFS Medicare beneficiaries by county. CMS adjusts Medicare Advantage plan payments to reflect the health of each beneficiary. Plans that bid below the benchmark receive rebates to provide enrollees extra benefits.
Do Medicare reimbursement rates vary by state?
Over the years, program data have indicated that although Medicare has uniform premiums and deductibles, benefits paid out vary significantly by State of residence of the beneficiary. These variations are due in part to the fact that reimbursements are based on local physicians' prices.
How are Medicare Advantage rates calculated?
A Medicare Advantage plan's base rate is determined by comparing the plan's bid and the benchmark. If the plan's bid is below the benchmark, the bid becomes the plan's base rate.
What percentage of Medicare DSH is uncompensated?
Additional Payment for Uncompensated Care: The remainder, equal to 75 percent of what otherwise would have been paid as Medicare DSH will become available for an uncompensated care payments after the amount is reduced for changes in the percentage of individuals that are uninsured.
What is DSH percentage?
The DSH patient percentage is equal to the sum of the percentage of Medicare inpatient days attributable to patients eligible for both Medicare Part A and Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and the percentage of total inpatient days attributable to patients eligible for Medicaid by not Medicare Part A.
How to contact HETS 270/271?
Applicants interested in receiving the HETS 270/271 DSH view can contact the MCARE Help Desk Monday – Friday 7:00 A.M. to 9:00 P.M. EST at 1-866-324-7315, or send an email to [email protected] for additional information.
What is DSH adjustment?
The primary method is for a hospital to qualify based on a statutory formula that results in the D SH patient percentage . The DSH patient percentage is equal to the sum of the percentage of Medicare inpatient days attributable to patients eligible for both Medicare Part A and Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and the percentage of total inpatient days attributable to patients eligible for Medicaid by not Medicare Part A. The DSH patient percentage is defined as:
What is the second computation for Medicare?
The second computation includes hospital patient days used by patients who, for those days, were eligible for medical assistance under a state plan approved under title XIX (Medicaid), but who were not entitled to Medicare Part A. This number is divided by the total number of hospital patient days for that same period.
What percentage of inpatient care revenue comes from state and local governments?
The alternate special exception method is for large urban hospitals that can demonstrate that more than 30 percent of their total net inpatient care revenues come from State and local governments for indigent care (other than Medicare or Medicaid).
When did CMS 1498-R become effective?
All other provisions of CMS Ruling 1498-R remain in effect. The amended Ruling became effective on April 22, 2015. To view the amended Ruling, please visit the link below in the downloads section. ...
When did the DSH allotment decrease?
Under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA, P.L. 111-148, as amended), Congress would have reduced federal DSH allotments beginning in 2014, to account for the decrease in uncompensated care anticipated under health insurance coverage expansion.
How much is Medicaid DSH reduction?
As a result, the current schedule and amounts for the Medicaid DSH reductions are as follows: $8.0 billion in FY 2024; $8.0 billion in FY 2025; $8.0 billion in FY 2026; and. $8.0 billion in FY 2027.
What is the DSH cap?
The caps on the federal DSH funds that are available to each state are referred to as allotments, and the amount of each state’s allotment is calculated according to statutory requirements and published annually in the Federal Register.
What is the low income utilization rate for a hospital?
the hospital has a low-income inpatient utilization in excess of 25 percent. 6. States may designate other hospitals to receive DSH payments as long as they have a Medicaid utilization rate of at least 1 percent and, with certain exceptions, at least two obstetricians with staff privileges that treat Medicaid enrollees.
What is the total DSH spending for 2018?
Total DSH spending includes an estimate of the portion of California’s Section 1115 waiver spending that based on the state’s DSH allotment.
When will the DSH be eliminated?
the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (P.L. 115-123) eliminated DSH allotment reductions for FY 2018 and FY 2019 and increased the amount of reductions scheduled for FYs 2021–2023. the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2020 (P.L. 116-94) delayed the implementation of the FY 2020 reductions until May 23, 2020.
When did DSH start?
Evolution of DSH payment policy. States began making Medicaid DSH payments in 1981, when Medicaid hospital payments were delinked from Medicare payment levels. Beginning with Medicaid’s enactment in 1965, states were required to pay hospitals’ reasonable costs, and to comply with this requirement, states mirrored Medicare’s hospital payment ...
What is DSH in Medicaid?
On May 13, 2013, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed rule with request for comment to implement the provision of the Affordable Care Act that reduces Medicaid Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) ...
When will Medicaid DSH be reduced?
The Affordable Care Act requires aggregate reductions to state Medicaid disproportionate share hospital (DSH) allotments annually from fiscal year (FY) 2014 through FY 2020 , at the same time as the Marketplace and Medicaid provide increased coverage options that will reduce uncompensated care levels for hospitals.
What is the Affordable Care Act?
The Affordable Care Act includes the annual amount of aggregate DSH reductions and directs the Secretary to develop a methodology, with consideration of statutory factors (mentioned below), for carrying out the reductions. This proposed rule implements these changes. The law specifies the following annual reductions to state-wide DSH allotments ...
How much is the Affordable Care Act 2020?
2020. $4 billion. The Affordable Care Act also outlines the following factors that must be taken into account when developing the methodology: (1) Low DSH states receive smaller reductions. (2) States with lowest percentages of uninsured individuals receive larger reductions.
Does the Affordable Care Act expand coverage?
Expanded coverage thanks to the Affordable Care Act through the Medicaid program and through Health Insurance Marketplaces is expected to significantly reduce uncompensated care. At the same time as the Affordable Care Act expands coverage that reduces levels of uncompensated care, it also reforms Medicaid DSH allotments to reflect anticipated ...
Does Medicaid pay for DSH?
Currently, states make Medicaid DSH payments to hospitals in instances where hospitals serve a disproportionate share of low income patients and have high levels of uncompensated care costs. States have broad discretion to distribute Medicaid DSH payments to hospitals, subject to hospital-specific payment limits and state-wide DSH allotments.

Final Rule on DSH Audit and Reporting Requirements
Final Rule: State Disproportionate Share Hospital Allotment Reductions
- On September 23, 2019, CMS released a final rule(link is external)to implement statutorily required disproportionate share hospital (DSH) allotment reductions that are scheduled to begin in FY2020. The rule finalizes a methodology to calculate the annual reductions for FY2020 through FY2025. The methodology includes five factors outlined in 1923(f)...
State-Specific Annual DSH Reports and Independent Certified Audits
- State-specific annual DSH reports are posted as submitted by states based on their availability and are arranged alphabetically by state under the corresponding State Plan RateYear (SPRY) heading. Due to the size of the files and issues associated with electronic formatting, state-specific independent certified audits will be available only upon request. Interested parties shoul…