When the overhaul of Medicare Part A reimbursement for nursing homes took effect in October 2019, predictions of audits and the potential for drastic changes came close on its heels.
After all, the Patient-Driven Payment Model (PDPM) was meant to be revenue-neutral, meaning that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) would not spend more money under the new system than under the Resource Utilization Group-Version 4 (RUG-IV) system that was replaced in 2019.
In the early months of PDPM, the new system appeared to be anything but neutral, to the point of it causing concern about adjustments from CMS by March 2020.