The Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) Prospective Payment System (PPS) proposed rule was released to the Federal Register on March 28. The rule proposes a 4.1% payment increase, 0.1% greater than what was finalized for FY 2024. The rule also proposes adjustments to the SNF Quality Reporting Program (QRP) and SNF Value-Based Purchasing (VBP) program, though no new measures are proposed for either program.

The rule also proposes strengthening of CMS’s enforcement authority related to civil money penalties (CMPs). Specifically, the rule proposes adjustments that would allow for both per day and per instance CMPs to be imposed on a single survey and allow for multiple CMPs (such as a per day and multiple per instance CMPs) to be enforced for the same type of noncompliance.

In a March 29 statement, Katie Smith Sloan, president and CEO of LeadingAge, welcomed the payment increase, but pointed out that “our members are struggling to stay above water with inflation-induced increased operating costs, including workforce, when there is already a nationwide shortage of direct care workers. […] The bottom line is, without staff, there is no care, and the national caregiver crisis is happening in real time. Policymakers in Congress and the administration must deliver immediate support to expand and enhance the workforce.”

LeadingAge will provide more in depth analysis of the proposed rule in the coming days. Read the CMS Fact Sheet on the rule.