Measure
The SNF VBP Program’s Hospital Readmission Measure
The SNF VBP Program awards incentive payments to SNFs based on their performance on the SNF 30-Day All-Cause Readmission Measure (SNFRM; NQF #2510). The SNFRM measures the rate of all-cause, unplanned hospital readmissions for SNF residents within 30 days of discharge from a prior hospital stay. The SNFRM is risk adjusted for stay-level factors including clinical and demographic characteristics. Each SNF receives a SNFRM score for a baseline period and a performance period. The following table provides the baseline and performance periods for Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 through FY 2023, as finalized through the federal rulemaking process.
Program Year |
Baseline Period |
Performance Period |
FY 2019 |
CY 2015 (1/1/2015) |
CY 2017 (1/1/2017-12/31/2017) |
FY 2020 |
FY 2016 (10/1/2015-9/30/2016) |
FY 2018 (10/1/2017-9/30/2018) |
FY 2021 |
FY 2017 (10/1/2016-9/30/2017) |
FY 2019 (10/1/2018-9/30/2019) |
FY 2022 |
FY 2018 (10/1/2017-9/30/2018) |
Q2-Q4 CY 2019 and Q3 CY 2020* (4/1/2019-12/31/2019 and 7/1/2020-9/30/2020) |
FY 2023 | FY 2019 (10/1/2018 - 9/30/2019) | FY 2021 (10/1/2020-9/30/2021) |
CY = Calendar Year; FY = Fiscal Year
*On September 2, 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued an interim final rule with comment period (IFC) during the public health emergency (PHE) in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This IFC revised the FY 2022 Skilled Nursing Facility Value-Based Purchasing (SNF VBP) Program performance period as a result of the PHE for COVID-19. This IFC also announced that with respect to the SNF VBP Program, if, as a result of a decision to grant a new nationwide ECE without request or a decision to grant a substantial number of individual ECE requests, we do not have enough data to reliably compare national performance on measures, we may propose to not score SNFs based on such limited data or make the associated payment adjustments for the affected program year. An announcement of this release can be found on the CMS.gov Newsroom.
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