February 11, 2003 - The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced its plans to increase reimbursement to dialysis providers by covering "bad debts" of Medicare patients who don't pay their share of their bills. Story from Bloomberg Financial.

The notice appeared yesterday in the Federal Register. The comment period extends until April 11.

SUMMARY: This proposed rule would remove the cap on allowable Medicare bad debt for end-stage renal disease (ESRD) facilities and expand the application of a 30 percent reduction in bad debt reimbursement for hospitals to other Medicare providers or entities currently eligible to receive bad debt reimbursement. In addition, this proposed rule would clarify that bad debts are not allowable for entities paid under reasonable-charge or fee schedule methodologies. The goal of this proposal, with respect to bad debt payment, is to achieve a consistent bad debt reimbursement policy for hospitals and other providers or entities currently eligible to receive payments from Medicare for bad debt. Federal Register notice for February 10.

[This message has been edited by Gary Peterson (edited 02-11-2003).]