The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services this week issued a final rule that will increase payment rates 1% to general acute care hospitals and 2.5% to long-term care hospitals (LTCHs) in Fiscal Year (FY) 2012.

The final rule also establishes initial readmissions measures that will be part of a new Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program, expands the quality measures that hospitals must report under the Hospital Inpatient Quality Reporting Program, and creates a new quality reporting program that would apply to hospitals paid under the LTCH Prospective Payment System.