CMS Publishes FY 2022 SNF APU Overview Table

February 2020 ~

CMS, on January 30, published the Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) Annual Payment Update (APU) table, indicating the data elements the agency will use for FY 2022 SNF Quality Reporting Program (QRP) APU determinations. The data elements included in the 18-page document are derived from Minimum Data Sets (MDSs) that providers are currently completing and submitting, in Calendar Year (CY) 2020.

As seen in the update, the SNF QRP requires SNFs to submit quality measures and standardized resident assessment data elements (SPADEs) to CMS.

“For a given data submission period, the Minimum Data Set (MDS) assessments submitted by a SNF must meet the APU minimum data completion threshold of no less than 80 percent of the MDS assessments having 100 percent completion of the required SNF QRP data elements. These are the standardized patient assessment data elements and the data elements needed to calculate the SNF QRP quality measures. Successful assessment completion means that the assessment does not contain non-informative responses, i.e., “dash” (–) for required data elements. Please note that while the coding of a “dash” is an optional response value for many of the data elements listed in this table, its use does not count toward meeting the APU minimum data completion threshold. Failure to meet the minimum threshold may result in a two (2) percentage point reduction in the SNF’s APU.”

The tables include information spanning the two versions of the MDS, and reflect the appropriate reporting periods:

• The MDS 3.0 Version 1.17.1 (effective October 1, 2019) is used for the CY Q1 – Q3 2020 (January – September 2020) data collection reporting period.
• The MDS 3.0 Version 1.18.0 (effective October 1, 2020) is used for the CY Q4 2020 (October – December 2020) data collection reporting period.

CMS notes that the table is limited to the data elements that are used for determining SNF QRP compliance and are included in the APU data completion threshold. There are additional data elements used to risk adjust the quality measures used in the SNF QRP. Failure to submit all data elements used to calculate and risk adjust a quality measure can affect SNF’s quality measure calculations that are displayed on the Compare website.

View the complete SNF APU table by accessing the document titled “FY-2022-SNF-QRP-APU-Table-for-Reporting-Assessment-Based-Measures-and-SPADEs-Finalized.pdf” in the ‘downloads’ section of the SNF QRP Measures and Technical Information webpage.

Source(s): CMS Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) Quality Reporting Program Measures and Technical Information webpage; SNF QRP Table for Reporting Assessment-Based Measures and SPADEs for the FY 2022 SNF QRP APU (PDF);