More than 190 countries celebrate Earth Day on April 22—a day for encouraging awareness and action to help protect our environment. How can you make your voice heard this year? Let Medicare help! Sign up for a MyMedicare.gov account and take advantage …

This document extends the comment period for the proposed rule entitled “Medicare and Medicaid Programs; Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; Interoperability and Patient Access for Medicare Advantage Organization and Medicaid Managed Care Plans, State Medicaid Agencies, CHIP Agencies and CHIP Managed Care Entities, Issuers of Qualified Health Plans in the Federally-facilitated Exchanges and Health Care Providers” that appeared in the March 4, 2019 Federal Register. The comment period for the proposed rule, which would end on May 3, 2019, is extended 30 days to June 3, 2019. We additionally note that based on public comments received on this proposed rule, we will adjust the effective dates of our policies to allow for adequate implementation timelines, as appropriate.

This proposed rule would update the prospective payment rates, the outlier threshold, and the wage index for Medicare inpatient hospital services provided by Inpatient Psychiatric Facilities (IPFs), which include psychiatric hospitals and excluded psyc…