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the phase-in for CY 2026 is consistent with the three-year phase-in schedule that CMS announced in the CY 2024 Rate Announcement. Comment: A couple of commenters requested greater transparency of additional information regarding the calculation of the technical adjustment. Response: The CY 2024, CY 2025, and CY 2026 Advance Notices indicated that the baseline development and modeling supporting the USPCCs had been updated to separately identify the historical and projected costs of IME and DGME paid to hospitals by CMS associated with services furnished to MA enrollees. This update in the modeling stems from separate projections of IME and DGME by FFS versus MA coverages. We provided the preliminary impacts on the growth rates of the technical adjustment in the CY 2026 Advance Notice, and we now provide the final impacts of the technical adjustment in this CY 2026 Rate Announcement, for the FFS growth rate and the MA growth rate, so that stakeholders can understand how the technical adjustment will impact the county rates in their plan service area. In the table below, we provide the updated impact of the technical adjustment for medical education costs on the final estimate of the 2026 non-ESRD FFS USPCC (being released in this CY 2026 Rate Announcement). Note that the 2026 Part B non-ESRD FFS USPCC is unaffected by the technical adjustment for medical education costs. As such, the following table illustrates the development of the 2026 Part A non-ESRD FFS USPCC including the technical adjustment.
Projection for Contract Year 2026 With 52% implementation of technical update (informational) With full (100%) implementation of technical update for CY 2026 rates a. Part A FFS Enrollment (annual, in millions)
33.184 33.184 Reimbursements (in millions): b. Part A reimbursements including all MA medical education
$199,826.05 $199,826.05 c. MA medical education amount (as a negative number) ($7,623.32) ($14,660.24)
d. Part A reimbursements excluding MA medical education d = (b + c)
$192,202.73 $185,165.81