Purpose of Review <p>This review will discuss the Medicare regulations pertinent to inpatient rehabilitation and illustrate their detrimental effects on the health outcomes, function, quality of life, quantity of life, and cost.</p> Recent Findings <p>Rehabilitation in a rehabilitation hospital– or in inpatient rehabilitation facility (IRF)– improves the function and quality of life of cancer survivors. Function is highly correlated with oncologic outcomes including mortality and complication rates. The rigidity of the IRF Prospective Payment System, particularly that lack of a mechanism to adequately reimburse expensive outpatient cancer treatments, presents a major barrier to optimal care. This is most deleterious for patients requiring immediate oncologic treatment concomitantly with high-quality inpatient rehabilitation. Lack of an adequate reimbursement mechanism forces clinicians to choose between delaying oncologic treatment or discharging medically complex patients to the lower level of care provided by relatively poorly staffed, equipped and monitored nursing home– or skilled nursing facilities– a setting with markedly worse outcomes.</p> Summary <p>Providing a cancer treatment carveout for IRF patients and adding cancer as a Rehabilitation Impairment Category (RIC) could improve functional and oncologic outcomes while saving money.</p>