WHA again this year is working with RC Healthcare on our wage index improvement project. This is a major WHA commitment and member benefit aimed at helping hospitals accurately report data in their cost reports, which is used to calculate the hospital wage index, a key component of Medicare payment for PPS hospitals.
As the kickoff to this year’s wage index improvement project, WHA and RC Healthcare will offer a wage index education webinar June 20 at 10 a.m. This program will provide important information on the wage index correction process. Over the years, this engagement, which is provided as a member service, has resulted in substantial corrections of various hospital data errors or FI adjustment errors and has been critically important to maintaining the integrity and accuracy of the wage index for hospitals located in Wisconsin.
PPS hospital members are encouraged to participate. Detailed information about the upcoming webinar was recently emailed to hospital CFOs and wage index contacts.
While the education component of the wage index improvement project is important, it is only one piece of the overall effort. RC Healthcare also identifies a wage index contact at each hospital and then either visits or makes individual phone calls to each facility as they work on wage index reporting issues. These additional proactive efforts have led to more accurate reporting of the S-3 worksheet of the cost report and increased reimbursement to Wisconsin hospitals.
This project has evolved over the years and now also covers the S-10 worksheet of the Medicare cost report. This data submission has elevated in importance as the Medicare DSH program is now using this information for DSH payment calculations.
If you have questions about WHA’s Wage Index Improvement Project, contact Brian Potter at WHA at bpotter@wha.org.