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Senate health bill includes RUG-IV delay

Contemporary Long-Term Care Weekly, January 14, 2010

As initially reported on MDSCentral, the Senate healthcare reform bill, known as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, includes a provision that would delay the implementation of Resource Utilization Group, Version Four (RUG-IV) by a year. Currently, RUG-IV is scheduled to be implemented alongside the MDS 3.0 in October but the provision in the Senate health bill would delay RUG-IV implementation until October 2011. However, the Senate bill would still implement the MDS 3.0, concurrent therapy adjustment, and changes to the look-back period to ensure that only services provided after SNF admission are counted toward RUG placement on October 1 of this year.

The House bill, on the other hand, would not delay RUG-IV implementation. Congressional leaders will have to negotiate the RUG-IV implementation delay, along with many other differing provisions, and reconcile the Senate and House bills before drafting the final healthcare reform bill to be sent to President Obama.

The amendment to delay RUG-IV implementation can be found on page 2241 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

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