www.wageindex.com Brought to you by Webdale Healthcare Consulting, LLC
Wage Index Reviews You Can Count On
www.wageindex.com Brought to you by Webdale Healthcare Consulting, LLC
Serving Our Community
Our family owned company has been serving Medicare
Hospitals for over 30 years. Our team includes experienced
CPAs and experts in hospital finance.
Our Small Business Services
Audits
- Medicare Wage Index Timetable FY 2026 (Effective 10/01/2025)
- Medicare Wage Index Timetable FY 2025 (Effective 10/01/2024)
- Medicare Bad Debt
- Medicare Advantage Bad Debt
- Occupational Mix Survey (Survey's are due June 30, 2023)
- DSH - Worksheet S-10
- CMS' New Rural Floor Budget Neutrality Factor Impact - See Article Below
Rural Floor Impact
CMS new policy on Rural Floor Budget Neutrality will
redistribute $1.2 Billion in Wage Index monies
The Rural Floor Budget Neutrality adjustment for the Wage Index works as such: no hospital in a state can receive a lower Wage Index than the Rural Wage Index for that particular state. Wage Index changes are budget neutral, so aggregate payments to participating hospitals cannot exceed the amount that would be paid to those same hospitals in the absence of the change. This means CMS reduces the Wage Index for all hospitals in the country to pay for the increased rate for these hospitals receiving the Rural Floor Wage Index in their state.
The Proposed FY 2024 Rural Floor Budget Neutrality Factor is .981145. That is a 1.8855 (1 minus .981145) decrease in all hospital’s Wage Index for FFY 2024 (beginning October 1, 2023). Therefore, if a hospital’s Wage Index should be 1.0000 they will now receive a Wage Index of .9811.
There are approximately 9.5 million Medicare Discharges in the country.
Conservatively, each percentage point change in Wage Index impacts reimbursement for hospitals by $70.
That means CMS’ new policy will redistribute $1.2 billion from all hospitals in the country to hospitals who receive their states Rural Floor.
The calculation is as follows:
- 9.5 million Medicare Discharges times
- 1.8855 percentage point change times
- $70 per Medicare Discharge
- For a total of $1,253,857,500
A billion here and a billion there and pretty soon you are talking about real money.
If you have any questions, please reach me Michael Webdale at mike@webdalehc.com or www.wageindex.com
Management
- Bookkeeping: preparing Worksheet S-3, Parts II, II & IV
- Payroll: review of hours
- Planning: Advice to maximize average hourly wage
- Auditing: Filing revisions & defending during audit
- Reclassification: Seeking highest Wage Index
Wage Index Newsletter
Webdale Healthcare Consulting is excited to offer a wage index subscription service which gives providers the opportunity to stay current with their Wage Index filings.
Wage Index Newsletter (WIN) provides the following three reports four times a year for each annual wage index cycle.
- WIN S-3 - Worksheet S-3, Parts II & III with a comparison to the prior year’s data.
- Line items that may need further review will be highlighted.
- Yellow highlighted items will be issues which look out of standard and negatively impact your average hourly wage (AHW).
- Blue highlighted items are issues that look out of standard but positively impact your AHW.
- WIN Occ Mix Report - The most current Occupational Mix Survey, with a comparison to prior survey. This will allow you to see if the survey positively or negatively impact your AHW.
- WIN CBSA Comparison
- Wage Index estimate for your geographic CBSA based on each PUF.
- Listing of summary level data for each hospital within your geographic CBSA.
Hospitals’ will receive all three reports four times a year as follows:
- May - After release of preliminary public use file (PUF).
- Jan/Feb - After audited PUF released by CMS.
- April - After Final PUF.
- Aug - CMS releases final numbers.
Wage Index Newsletter pricing:
Annual Subscription for one hospital $695
Annual Subscription for 2-5 hospitals $595 each
Annual Subscription for 6 or more hospitals $495 each
Subscription is good for twelve months. We will also be available as a resource for questions for your reimbursement staff throughout the year.
WIN is a great way for hospitals to help train wage index staff and have a second set of eyes available to look for issues impacting Medicare Reimbursement.
If interested, please reach out to us at mike@webdalehc.com or (800) 862-5368.
Wage Index Newsletter - S-3
First Report with WIN
It will have your hospitals data compared to prior year data.
This is the starting point for your Wage Index Revisions.
Second Report with WIN
This file has a calculator to see how the Occupational Mix Factor is calculated.
Hospitals can use this to make changes and see if the impact is positive or negative.
Third Report with WIN
Three year AHW information for each Hospitals CBSA.
We calculate a Wage Index based on each PUF.
Wage Index History
Attached is a Wage Index History for three year's with a change per year.
FY 2026 is proposed from the April 30, 2025 PUF and is effective 10/01/2025.
FY 2024 & FY 2025 are all Final numbers released from CMS.
Table 3 will have your Individual Wage Index for FY 2025 & FY 2026.
Contact us if you want those numbers or have any concerns about your change.
Subscribe
About Us
Medicare Wage Index
Occupational Mix Reviews
Occupational Mix Reviews
Wage Index Improvement Program.
Occupational Mix Reviews
Occupational Mix Reviews
Occupational Mix Reviews
Occupational Mix Survey's are due June 30, 2023 and impact reimbursement for three years. We can calculate the
impact on your reimbursement.
Medicare Bad Debt
Occupational Mix Reviews
Medicare Bad Debt
Claim Medicare Bad Debt and Medicare Advantage Bad Debt.
Provided by Webdale Healthcare Consulting, LLC (800) 862-5368
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