The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released its inpatient reimbursement rates yesterday, sparing hospitals from an $850 million haircut by leaving out a 0.8% cut to Medicare hospital payments.

The Medicare agency boosted the rate for a type of implantable heart pump called left ventricular assist device by 9.5%, a proposal CMS released in April to raise the LVAD reimbursement rate by 7.9%.