CMS recently issued its final IPPS rates and wage indices for FY 2009. It posted the updates on its website on September 29, 2008, and published them in the Federal Register on October 3, 2008. See http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdf/E8-23083.pdf. The publication includes tables listing the final wage indices, hospital reclassifications, payment rates, as well as related tables. CMS included the recalculated wage indices

for hospitals receiving a Section 508 reclassification, which reclassifications were extended through FY 2009 by the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008. CMS also issued the outlier threshold amount for

FY 2009, $20,045, down from the FY 2008 threshold of $22,185, and announced the final FY 2009 capital federal rate of $ $424.17, down from the FY 2008 rate of $426.14.