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Showing posts from May, 2021

Three more years of CJR: What participating hospitals need to know

On April 29, CMS issued a final rule to extend the Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement model by an additional three performance years. A number of modifications effective in the extension period aim to improve the model and reflect Medicare policy changes over the last several years. CMS anticipates that CJR will save the Medicare program an additional $217 million over the extension period. The following summarizes the most notable model changes: Three new performance years have been added: PY 6 will include episodes that end between Oct. 1, 2021 and Dec. 31, 2022; PY 7 will include episodes that end between Jan. 1, 2023 and Dec. 31, 2023; and PY 8 will include episodes that end between Jan. 1, 2024 and Dec. 31, 2024. Episode definitions under the model have been expanded to include total hip arthroplasty and total knee arthroplasty procedures performed in the hospital outpatient setting. The episode categories under the extension are site-neutral and are defined as: MS-DRG 470: