Section 304 of the Medicare, Medicaid,
and SCHIP Benefits Improvement and Protection Act of 2000 requires
CMS to collect wage data on hospital employees by occupational
category, at least once every 3 years, in order to construct an
occupational mix adjustment to the wage index. CMS first collected
occupational mix data in 2003 for the FY 2005 wage index and a
subsequent collection of occupational mix data was performed in
2006 for the FY 2007 and FY 2008 wage index. In response to
industry comments suggesting ways to improve the occupational mix
survey, CMS has revised the 2007/2008 survey that was used to
calculate the FY 2010 wage index. We are revising the 2007/2008
survey to collect for a 12- month period (that is, from pay periods
ending between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2010). The revised
occupational mix survey will be used to adjust the FY 2013 wage
index.
Currently, there are
approximately 3,300 short-term and acute care hospitals
participating in the Medicare program which is a decrease of
approximately 100 from the FY 2016 survey. We based this estimate
on the number of hospitals that submitted wage index information
for the FY 2019 IPPS rule. The 2019 survey will provide for the
collection of hospital-specific wages and hours data for a 1-year
reporting period (that is, payroll periods ending between January
1, 2019 and December 31, 2019). The estimated hospital burden hours
for the 2019 Occupational Mix survey will decrease from 1,632,000
by 48,000 to 1,584,000 hours because we estimate fewer hospitals
will be required to submit the occupational mix survey and we
excluded the burden for the MACs since they are not respondents of
this collection.
On behalf of this Federal agency, I certify that
the collection of information encompassed by this request complies
with 5 CFR 1320.9 and the related provisions of 5 CFR
1320.8(b)(3).
The following is a summary of the topics, regarding
the proposed collection of information, that the certification
covers:
(i) Why the information is being collected;
(ii) Use of information;
(iii) Burden estimate;
(iv) Nature of response (voluntary, required for a
benefit, or mandatory);
(v) Nature and extent of confidentiality; and
(vi) Need to display currently valid OMB control
number;
If you are unable to certify compliance with any of
these provisions, identify the item by leaving the box unchecked
and explain the reason in the Supporting Statement.