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POS 31: Skilled Nursing Facility

POS 31 is the CMS place of service code for Skilled Nursing Facility, defined as a facility which primarily provides inpatient skilled nursing care and related services to patients who require medical, nursing, or rehabilitative services but does not provide the level of care or treatment available in a hospital. On Medicare professional claims paid under the physician fee schedule, POS 31 takes the facility rate (Pub. 100-04, chapter 26).

Compiled from CMS files by the QuickIntell RCM Editorial Team · Data effective · Method: reference methodology · Report a data correction

Data currency: CMS Place of Service code set: CMS page last modified February 17, 2026; code table updated May 2, 2024 (effective August 1, 2024). Next CMS release: no fixed schedule (CMS posts new place of service codes on its code set page, usually months before Medicare's effective date).

Place of service code
31
Medicare fee schedule rate
Facility rate
Pub. 100-04, chapter 26, section 10.5
In effect since
Before 2003
Reported on
Professional claims
CMS-1500 item 24B or the 837P
Setting group
Nursing, hospice, rehabilitation, dialysis and PACE facilities

CMS definition of POS 31

A facility which primarily provides inpatient skilled nursing care and related services to patients who require medical, nursing, or rehabilitative services but does not provide the level of care or treatment available in a hospital.

CMS Place of Service code set, Skilled Nursing Facility

POS 31 is one of the long-standing codes that CMS lists without a date, meaning it was in effect on or before January 1, 2003 (Medicare Claims Processing Manual, Pub. 100-04, chapter 26, section 10.5).

Facility or non-facility rate for POS 31

Medicare pays a physician fee schedule service billed with this code at the facility rate. The facility rate carries a smaller practice-expense component than the non-facility rate, because in a facility setting the facility, not the practitioner, bears the cost of the room, the staff and most supplies; where the facility is a Medicare provider it is paid for those costs on its own claim.

Chapter 12, section 20.4.2 of the Medicare Claims Processing Manual lists this setting as “Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) for a Part A resident” on its facility list. The rule behind the list is that the code reflects where the beneficiary received the face-to-face service, except that services to a registered hospital inpatient or outpatient are paid at the facility rate wherever the encounter took place.

Chapter 12 puts skilled nursing facility services to a Part A resident on the facility-rate list, and a practitioner who knows a registered inpatient is in a SNF receiving inpatient skilled nursing care may report POS 31 in place of POS 21 (chapter 26, section 10.5).

Not every service has two rates: when the facility and non-facility amounts are the same, as they are for the professional component of a diagnostic test, the place of service does not change the payment. Outpatient therapy and comprehensive outpatient rehabilitation facility services are always paid at the non-facility rate.

POS 31 vs POS 32: what changes

Both are nursing facilities, but they pay differently for physician services. Chapter 12, section 20.4.2 lists a skilled nursing facility for a Part A resident (POS 31) at the facility rate and a nursing facility, or a SNF resident whose services fall under Part B, (POS 32) at the non-facility rate. The resident's coverage at the time of the service therefore decides the code as much as the building does.

Place of service 31 and 32 compared
POSSettingMedicare rateIn effect since
31Skilled Nursing FacilityFacility rateBefore 2003
32Nursing FacilityNon-facility rateBefore 2003

Denials when POS 31 does not fit the claim

A place of service that conflicts with the procedure, the patient's registration or the payer's policy comes back with one of three codes. Claim adjustment reason code 5 means the procedure code or bill type is inconsistent with the place of service; reason code 58 means the payer considers the setting inappropriate or invalid for the service; and remark code M77 marks a missing, incomplete, invalid or inappropriate place of service. Medicare returns a line whose POS is missing, unassigned or incompatible with a site-specific procedure as unprocessable with CARC 16 and M77, so the fix is a corrected claim rather than an appeal (Pub. 100-04, chapter 26, section 10.6).

Where QuickIntell fits with place of service

QuickRCM covers eligibility, claim readiness, denials, posting and A/R with configurable automation and human review, the stage where the place of service code is checked against the setting, the registration and the modifier before the claim goes out, and where CARC 5, CARC 58 and M77 denials are worked.

See QuickRCM for claim readinessSee QuickCode for coder reviewBook a meeting

Frequently asked questions

What is place of service code 31?

POS 31, Skilled Nursing Facility, is defined by CMS as follows: A facility which primarily provides inpatient skilled nursing care and related services to patients who require medical, nursing, or rehabilitative services but does not provide the level of care or treatment available in a hospital. POS 31 is one of the long-standing codes that CMS lists without a date, meaning it was in effect on or before January 1, 2003 (Medicare Claims Processing Manual, Pub. 100-04, chapter 26, section 10.5). It sits in the nursing, hospice, rehabilitation, dialysis and pace facilities group with POS 32, POS 34, POS 61, POS 62, POS 65 and POS 66.

Does POS 31 pay the facility or the non-facility rate?

The facility rate. Medicare Claims Processing Manual, Pub. 100-04, chapter 26, section 10.5 designates POS 31 F, so a physician fee schedule service billed with it is paid at the facility rate, the lower practice-expense amount paid when the setting rather than the practitioner carries the cost of space, staff and supplies. Chapter 12, section 20.4.2 lists it as "Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) for a Part A resident" on the facility list. Services whose two rates are equal, such as the professional component of a diagnostic test, pay the same either way (chapter 12, section 20.4.2).

When should a claim use POS 31?

Chapter 12 puts skilled nursing facility services to a Part A resident on the facility-rate list, and a practitioner who knows a registered inpatient is in a SNF receiving inpatient skilled nursing care may report POS 31 in place of POS 21 (chapter 26, section 10.5).

Sources

Every figure on this page is taken from the CMS publications below, as released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Projection built 2026-10-10. Verify against the primary file before billing or contracting decisions. The reference methodology explains how each figure is computed from these files.

Disclaimer

The definition is reproduced from the CMS Place of Service code set; the Medicare rate and instructions are from Pub. 100-04, chapters 12 and 26. Medicaid and commercial plans publish their own place of service rules. Not legal, clinical or billing advice.

Found a figure that does not match the CMS file? Report a data correction with the CMS file and the value you expected; the request reaches the editorial team through the contact form.