Skilled Nursing Facility Prospective Payment System Requirements

Medicare requires a beneficiary to be an inpatient of a hospital for at least 3 consecutive days before being discharged from the hospital to be eligible for skilled nursing facility (SNF) services (SSA § 1861(i)). If the beneficiary is subsequently admitted to an SNF, the beneficiary is required to be admitted either within 30 days after discharge from the hospital or within such time as it would be medically appropriate to begin an active course of treatment. Prior OIG reviews found that Medicare payments for SNF services were not compliant with the requirement of a 3-day inpatient hospital stay within 30 days of an SNF admission. We will review compliance with the SNF prospective payment system requirement related to a 3-day qualifying inpatient hospital stay.

Announced or Revised	Agency	Title	Component	Report Number(s)	Expected Issue Date (FY)
Complete	Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services	Skilled Nursing Facility Prospective Payment System Requirements	Office of Audit Services	A-05-16-00043; W-00-16-30014	2019