On July 31, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released for public inspection the final rule. CMS scaled back or cancelled many planned proposals in the FY 2021 SNF PPS Proposed Rule due to the ongoing coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) public health emergency. However, that's as far as the agency is willing to go for now—citing commenters' requests for additional relief from COVID-19 as beyond the scope of this rulemaking. CMS also made a few key revisions to proposed changes, most notably to the ICD-10-CM code mappings used for case-mix classification in the Patient-Driven Payment Model (PDPM). 

Here are some of the key updates that nurse assessment coordinators (NACs) should pay attention to.