§ 14-11 — Hospital payment reform

(a) The Department may, by rule, implement the All Patient Refined Diagnosis Related Groups (APR-DRG) payment system for inpatient services provided on or after July 1, 2013, in a manner consistent with the actions authorized in this Section. (b) On or before October 1, 2012 and through June 30, 2013, the Department shall begin testing the APR-DRG system. During the testing period the Department shall process and price inpatient services using the APR-DRG system; however, actual payments for those inpatient services shall be made using the current reimbursement system. During the testing period, the Department, in collaboration with the statewide representative of hospitals, shall provide information and technical assistance to hospitals to encourage and facilitate their transition to the APR-DRG system. (c) The Department may, by rule, implement the Enhanced Ambulatory Procedure Grouping (EAPG) system for outpatient services provided on or after January 1, 2014, in a manner consistent with the actions authorized in this Section. On or before January 1, 2013 and through December 31, 2013, the Department shall begin testing the EAPG system. During the testing period the Department shall process and price outpatient services using the EAPG system; however, actual payments for those outpatient services shall be made using the current reimbursement system. During the testing period, the Department, in collaboration with the statewide representative of hospitals, shall provide information and technical assistance to hospitals to encourage and facilitate their transition to the EAPG system. (d) The Department in consultation with the current hospital technical advisory group shall review the test claims for inpatient and outpatient services at least monthly, including the estimated impact on hospitals, and, in developing the rules, policies, and procedures to implement the new payment systems, shall consider at least the following issues: (1) The use of national relative weights provided by the vendor of the APR-DRG system, adjusted to reflect characteristics of the Illinois Medical Assistance population. (2) An updated outlier payment methodology based on current data and consistent with the APR-DRG system. (3) The use of policy adjusters to enhance payments to hospitals treating a high percentage of individuals covered by the Medical Assistance program and uninsured patients. (4) Reimbursement for inpatient specialty services such as psychiatric, rehabilitation, and long-term acute care using updated per diem rates that account for service acuity. (5) The creation of one or more transition funding pools to preserve access to care and to ensure financial stability as hospitals transition to the new payment system. (6) Whether, beginning July 1, 2014, some of the static adjustment payments financed by General Revenue funds should be used as part of the base payment system, including as policy adjusters to recognize the additional costs of certain services, such as pediatric or neonatal, or providers, such as trauma centers, Critical Access Hospitals, or high Medicaid hospitals, or for services to uninsured patients. (e) The Department shall provide the association representing the majority of hospitals in Illinois, as the statewide representative of the hospital community, with a monthly file of claims adjudicated under the test system for the purpose of review and analysis as part of the collaboration between the State and the hospital community. The file shall consist of a de-identified extract compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). (f) The current hospital technical advisory group shall make recommendations for changes during the testing period and recommendations for changes prior to the effective dates of the new payment systems. The Department shall draft administrative rules to implement the new payment systems and provide them to the technical advisory group at least 90 days prior to the proposed effective dates of the new payment systems. (g) The payments to hospitals financed by the current hospital assessment, authorized under Article V-A of this Code, are scheduled to sunset on June 30, 2014. The continuation of or revisions to the hospital assessment program shall take into consideration the impact on hospitals and access to care as a result of the changes to the hospital payment system. (h) Beginning July 1, 2014, the Department may transition current General Revenue funded supplemental payments into the claims based system over a period of no less than 2 years from the implementation date of the new payment systems and no more than 4 years from the implementation date of the new payment systems, provided however that the Department may adopt, by rule, supplemental payments to help ensure access to care in a geographic area or to help ensure access to specialty services. For any supplemental payments that are adopted that are based on historic data, the data shall be no older than 3 years and the supplemental payment shall be effective for no longer than 2 years before requiring the data to be updated. (i) Any payments authorized under 89 Illinois Administrative Code 148 set to expire in State fiscal year 2012 and that were paid out to hospitals in State fiscal year 2012 shall remain in effect as long as the assessment imposed by Section 5A-2 is in effect. (j) Subsections (a) and (c) of this Section shall remain operative unless the Auditor General has reported that: (i) the Department has not undertaken the required actions listed in the report required by subsection (a) of Section 2-20 of the Illinois State Auditing Act; or (ii) the Department has failed to comply with the reporting requirements of Section 2-20 of the Illinois State Auditing Act. (k) Subsections (a) and (c) of this Section shall not be operative until final federal approval by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and implementation of all of the payments and assessments in Article V-A in its form as of the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 97th General Assembly or as it may be amended.

Legislative History

(Source: P.A. 97-689, eff. 6-14-12.)