Spotlights and Announcements
Updates
August 4, 2025
The FY 2026 Skilled Nursing Facility Prospective Payment System (SNF PPS) final rule is now available. This rule finalizes a series of administrative and scoring policy updates for FY 2026 and future years that are intended to implement the SNF VBP Program’s scoring methodology and promote alignment with other CMS quality programs, including removing the Health Equity Adjustment and adopting a new reconsideration request process that will allow SNFs to appeal CMS's decisions on review and correction requests.
August 1, 2025
The August 2025 Performance Score Reports for the FY 2026 SNF VBP Program are now available for download via the Internet Quality Improvement and Evaluation System (iQIES). These reports contain performance information for the FY 2026 SNF VBP Program year, including the incentive payment multiplier (IPM). When payments are made for a SNF's Medicare fee-for-service Part A claims in FY 2026 (October 1, 2025, through September 30, 2026), CMS multiplies the adjusted federal per diem rate by the SNF's incentive payment multiplier for the FY 2026 Program year.
For the FY 2026 Program year, performance in the SNF VBP Program is based on four measures:
- SNF 30-Day All-Cause Readmission Measure (SNFRM)
- Skilled Nursing Facility Healthcare-Associated Infections Requiring Hospitalization (SNF HAI)
- Total Nursing Staff Turnover (Nursing Staff Turnover)
- Total Nurse Staffing Hours per Resident Day (Total Nurse Staffing)
SNFs may submit requests for corrections to their performance score and ranking up to 30 days following this report being made available, until August 31, 2025. SNFs must submit correction requests to the SNF VBP Program Help Desk at SNFVBPquestions@cms.hhs.gov with the subject line “SNF VBP Review and Correction Inquiry” along with the SNF’s CMS Certification Number (CCN), SNF’s name, correction request, and reason for requesting the correction.
For assistance obtaining access to your SNF’s report, which can only be accessed via iQIES, contact the iQIES Service Center at iqies@cms.hhs.gov.
June 9, 2025
The June 2025 Quarterly Confidential Feedback Reports for the FY 2026 SNF VBP Program are now available for download via the Internet Quality Improvement and Evaluation System (iQIES). These reports contain facility-level measure results for four quality measures during FY 2024, the FY 2026 SNF VBP Program performance period:
- SNF 30-Day All-Cause Readmission Measure (SNFRM)
- Skilled Nursing Facility Healthcare-Associated Infections Requiring Hospitalization (SNF HAI)
- Total Nursing Staff Turnover (Nursing Staff Turnover)
- Total Nurse Staffing Hours per Resident Day (Total Nurse Staffing)
SNFs may submit requests for corrections to their measure results up to 30 days following this report being made available, until July 9, 2025. Corrections are limited to errors made by CMS or its contractors when calculating a SNF’s measure results. SNFs must submit correction requests to SNFVBPquestions@cms.hhs.gov with the subject line “SNF VBP Review and Correction Inquiry” along with the SNF’s CMS Certification Number (CCN), SNF’s name, correction request, and reason for requesting the correction.
For assistance obtaining access to your SNF’s report, which can only be accessed via iQIES, contact the iQIES Service Center at iqies@cms.hhs.gov.
April 11, 2025
The FY 2026 Skilled Nursing Facility Prospective Payment System (SNF PPS) proposed rule is now available. The rule proposes a series of administrative and scoring policy updates for FY 2026 and future years that are intended to implement the SNF VBP Program’s scoring methodology and promote alignment with other CMS quality programs. A fact sheet discussing the major provisions of the proposed rule can be found on the CMS website.
March 28, 2025
The March 2025 Quarterly Interim Performance Period Reports for the FY 2026 SNF VBP Program year are now available to download via the Internet Quality Improvement and Evaluation System (iQIES). These reports contain interim stay-level data for the SNF 30-Day All-Cause Readmission Measure (SNFRM) for 10/1/2023 – 6/30/2024 (Quarter 1 – Quarter 3 of FY 2024, the FY 2026 SNF VBP Program performance period). The interim data contained in these reports are not final and are subject to change; thus, they are not eligible for the SNF VBP Program’s Review and Correction process.
For assistance obtaining access to your SNF’s report, which can only be accessed via iQIES, please contact the iQIES Service Center by phone at (800) 339-9313 or by email at iqies@cms.hhs.gov.
December 10, 2024
The December 2024 Quarterly Confidential Feedback Reports for the FY 2026 SNF VBP Program are now available to download via the Internet Quality Improvement and Evaluation System (iQIES). These reports contain facility-level results for the SNF 30-Day All-Cause Readmission Measure (SNFRM), the Skilled Nursing Facility Healthcare-Associated Infections Requiring Hospitalization (SNF HAI) measure, the Total Nurse Staffing Hours per Resident Day measure, and the Total Nursing Staff Turnover measure for FY 2022, the FY 2026 SNF VBP Program baseline period.
SNFs may submit requests for corrections to their measure results up to 30 days following this report being made available, until January 9, 2025. Corrections are limited to errors made by CMS or its contractors when calculating a SNF’s measure results. SNFs must submit correction requests to SNFVBPquestions@cms.hhs.gov with the subject line “SNF VBP Review and Correction Inquiry” along with the SNF’s CMS Certification Number (CCN), SNF’s name, correction request, and reason for requesting the correction.
Note: The FY 2026 SNF VBP Program year is the first to assess performance on multiple quality measures rather than a single measure, as part of an expansion of the SNF VBP Program. For more information about the SNF VBP Program’s measures, see the SNF VBP Program Measures webpage.
For assistance obtaining access to your SNF’s report, which can only be accessed via iQIES, contact the QIES/iQIES Service Center at iqies@cms.hhs.gov.