SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

In FR Doc. 2026-15652 of August 3, 2026, the Inpatient Rehabilitation Facility (IRF) Prospective Payment System (PPS) for Federal Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 and Updates to the IRF Quality Reporting Program final rule (FY 2027 IRF PPS final rule) (91 FR 48982), there were a number of technical errors that are identified and corrected in this correcting document.

II. Summary of Errors

A. Summary of Errors in the Preamble

We made an inadvertent technical error when calculating the FY 2027 pre-floor, pre-reclassified IPPS wage index. Under our methodologies as finalized in the FY 2027 IPPS/Long-Term Care Hospitals (LTCH) PPS final rule, we exclude rural emergency hospitals (REHs) including hospitals that subsequently became REHs after the period from which the data were taken, from certain data and calculations used in the IPPS rate setting, including the development of the Medicare Severity Diagnosis-Related Group (MS-DRG) relative weights for FY 2027 (91 FR 49672) and the calculation of the standardized amount (91 FR 50370). In addition, we stated that any hospital that is designated as an REH by 7 days prior to the publication of the preliminary wage index public use file (PUF) is excluded from the calculation of the wage index (91 FR 49791). We inadvertently treated a current IPPS hospital (CMS Certification Number (CCN) 250078) as a hospital that had converted to REH status, thereby erroneously excluding its data from the MS-DRG relative weight calculation and the wage index. Therefore, we restored the applicable data for this hospital and recalculated the FY 2027 IPPS pre-floor, pre-reclassified hospital wage index.

As a result of this technical error that affected the FY 2027 IPPS pre-floor, pre-reclassified hospital wage index, we recalculated the affected FY 2027 IRF PPS rate-setting calculations, including all applicable budget neutrality factors and the final outlier threshold, as discussed further in section II.B. of this correcting document. The updated IPPS wage index results in changes to the FY 2027 IRF PPS final rule pages 49000 through 49005 and 49027 through 49028.

On page 49013, in section IX., “Request for Information Regarding Future IRF Payment Reform”, we included erroneous text regarding the IRF Quality Reporting Program.

B. Summary of Errors and Corrections Posted on the CMS Website for the IRF Wage Index

After the FY 2027 IRF PPS final rule was published, we identified that the FY 2027 IPPS wage index had been calculated without data from one IPPS hospital. Specifically, the hospital (CCN 250078) was erroneously classified as an REH, excluding it from the MS-DRG relative weight calculation and the IPPS wage index. As a result, the IPPS national hourly wage required updating, which resulted in updates to the budget neutrality factors and outlier threshold for IRF. Therefore, in this document, we utilized updated IRF wage index data which include the provider. The inclusion of a revised wage index resulted in changes to the estimated payment update (section VI. of the FY 2027 IRF PPS final rule) and changes to the estimated payment impact (section XIII. of the FY 2027 IRF PPS final rule).

III. Waiver of Proposed Rulemaking and Delay in Effective Date

Section 1871(b)(1) of the Social Security Act (the Act) requires the Secretary to provide for notice of a proposed rule in the Federal Register and provide a period of not less than 60 days for public comment. In addition, section 1871(e)(1)(B)(i) of the Act mandates a 30-day delay in effective date after issuance or publication of a rule. Section 1871(b)(2)(C) of the Act provides an exception from the notice and 60-day comment period and delay in effective date requirements of the Act, under the good cause standard set forth in 5 U.S.C. 553(b)(B). Section 1871(e)(1)(B)(ii) of the Act provides an exception from the delay in effective date requirements of the Act as well. Section 553(b)(B) authorizes an agency to dispense with normal notice and comment rulemaking procedures for good cause if the agency makes a finding that the notice and comment process is impracticable, unnecessary, or contrary to the public interest, and includes a statement of the finding and the reasons for it in the rule. In addition, section 1871(e)(1)(B)(ii) of the Act allows the agency to avoid the 30-day delay in effective date where the waiver is necessary to comply with statutory requirements or such delay is contrary to the public interest and the agency includes in the rule a statement of the finding and the reasons for it.

In our view, this correcting document does not constitute a rulemaking that would be subject to these requirements. This document merely corrects technical errors, removes erroneous text in the IRF Request for Information in section IX. related to the IRF Quality Reporting Program and provides an updated wage index resulting in revisions to the payment updates, payment impact, and related tables in the FY 2027 IRF PPS final rule but does not make substantive changes to the policies or payment methodologies that were adopted in the FY 2027 IRF PPS final rule. The corrections contained in this document are consistent with, and ( printed page 62328) do not make substantive changes to, the policies and payment methodologies that were proposed, subject to notice and comment procedures, and adopted in the FY 2027 IRF PPS final rule. As a result, the corrections made through this document are intended to resolve inadvertent errors so that the FY 2027 IRF PPS final rule accurately reflects the policies adopted therein.

In addition, even if this were a rulemaking to which the notice and comment and delayed effective date requirements applied, we find that there is good cause to waive such requirements. Undertaking further notice and comment procedures to incorporate the corrections in this document into the final rule or delaying the effective date would be contrary to the public interest because it is in the public's interest for providers to receive appropriate payments in as timely a manner as possible, and to ensure that the FY 2027 IRF PPS final rule accurately reflects our policies. Furthermore, such procedures would be unnecessary, as we are not altering our payment methodologies or policies, but rather, we are simply implementing correctly the methodologies and policies that we previously proposed, requested comment on, and subsequently finalized. This final rule correction is intended solely to ensure that the FY 2027 IRF PPS final rule accurately reflects these payment methodologies and policies. Therefore, we believe we have good cause to waive the notice and comment and effective date requirements.

IV. Correction of Errors

In FR Doc. 2026-15652 of August 3, 2026, make the following corrections:

1. On page 49000,

a. Top third of the page, third column, first partial paragraph,

(1) Line 6, the figure that reads “1.0036” is corrected to read “1.0035”.

(2) Line 7, the figure that reads “$19,888” is corrected to read “$19,886”.

(3) Line 11, the figure that reads “$19,868” is corrected to read “$19,866”.

b. Middle of the page, Table 5 titled “Calculations to Determine the FY 2027 IRF Standard Payment Conversion Factor”, is corrected to read:

c. Bottom third of the page, first column, last paragraph, line 4, the figure that reads “$19,868” is corrected to read “$19,866”.

2. On pages 49001 through 49003, the Table 6 titled “FY 2027 IRF PPS Payment Rates”, is corrected to read:

( printed page 62329)

( printed page 62330)

( printed page 62331)

3. On page 49003, bottom half of the page,

a. First column, last paragraph, line 10, the figure that reads “0.8604” is corrected to read “0.8606”.

b. Second column, first partial paragraph, line 3, the figure that reads “0.9326” is corrected to read “0.9327”.

4. On page 49004, the Table 7 titled “Example of Computing the FY 2027 IRF Prospective Payment Rate” is corrected to read:

( printed page 62332)

5. On page 49004, middle of the page, first column, first paragraph,

a. Line 2, the figure that reads “$31,745.14” is corrected to read “$31,747.21”.

b. Line 4, the figure that reads “$32,401.79” is corrected to read “$32,401.07”.

6. On page 49005, second column, last paragraph, line 4, the figure that reads “$8,857” is corrected to read “$8,856”.

7. On page 49013, column 2, lines 5 through 13, remove the phrase “The recommended deadlines of 60 or 90 days after the end of the quarter would not achieve our goal of providing more timely data to consumers and IRFs, as posting of public reporting would fall into the same quarterly refresh that it is in currently. For example, for Q1 groupings.”.

8. On pages 49027 and 49028, Table 14 titled “IRF Impact for FY 2027 (Columns 4 through 7 in Percentages)”, is corrected to read:

( printed page 62333)

( printed page 62334)

9. On page 49028, middle of the page, first column, second paragraph, line 10, the figure that reads “$8,857” is corrected to read “$8,856”.

91 FR 62327