For hospitals with Graduate Medical Education programs, calculation of the prior-year intern-to-bed ratio (IBR) may be more complex than anticipated due to recent updates to CMS regulations. Proper calculation of the IBR impacts a hospital’s indirect medical education payments computed on the annual Medicare cost report. Teaching hospitals that 1) add full-time equivalents (FTEs) in initial years of a new program and/or 2) increase the number of shared FTEs through affiliation agreements and then subsequently increase the number of FTEs they train in the same cost report period may have an opportunity to evaluate the prior-year IBR calculations.
If your teaching hospital fits one or both scenarios described above, please contact a professional at FORVIS or email GME@forvis.com. Our team can help you make sure that the prior-year IBR calculations remain appropriate with current Medicare cost report regulatory guidelines.