MedPAC

MedPAC Talks Telehealth

Expanded telehealth is here to stay, members of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission agreed at their September public meeting. What they do not yet know is in what form. Among the issues that need to be addressed in any post-COVID-19 expansion of Medicare-covered telehealth services are: Whether affording access to telehealth services would exacerbate the digital divide and leave some Medicare beneficiaries with less access to care than others. Whether audio-only coverage, temporarily permitted during the pandemic, should be continued. Whether greater use of telehealth might foster greater use of low-value services. Whether use of non-HIPAA-compliant video technology should continue [...]

iqtsupport2020-09-11T06:00:46-04:00September 11, 2020|Medicare, Medicare regulations, Medicare reimbursement policy, MedPAC|

MedPAC Meets

Last week the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission met in Washington, D.C. to discuss a number of Medicare payment issues. The issues on MedPAC’s September agenda were: the coronavirus pandemic and Medicare context for Medicare payment policy report on the skilled nursing facility value-based purchasing program report on the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014’s changes to the Medicare clinical laboratory fee schedule congressional request on private equity and Medicare expansion of telehealth in Medicare Medicare coverage for vaccines MedPAC is an independent congressional agency that advises Congress on issues involving the Medicare program. While its recommendations are not binding on [...]

iqtsupport2020-09-10T06:00:04-04:00September 10, 2020|Coronavirus, COVID-19, Medicare regulations, Medicare reimbursement policy, MedPAC|

MedPAC Reports to Congress

MedPAC has submitted its annual report to Congress. The congressionally mandated report, titled Report to Congress: Medicare and the Health Care Delivery System, consists of seven chapters: Realizing the promise of value-based payment in Medicare: an agenda for change. Challenges in maintaining and increasing savings from accountable care organizations (ACOs). Replacing the Medicare Advantage quality bonus program. Mandated report: Impact of changes in the 21st Century Cures Act to risk adjustment for Medicare Advantage enrollees. Realigning incentives in Medicare Part D. Separately payable drugs in the hospital outpatient prospective payment system (OPPS). Improving Medicare’s end-state renal disease (ESRD) prospective payment [...]

iqtsupport2020-06-22T06:00:10-04:00June 22, 2020|Accountable Care Organization, ACO, Medicare, Medicare reimbursement policy, MedPAC|

MedPAC Offers 2021 Medicare Rate Recommendations

MedPAC has recommended to Congress changes in Medicare payment rates in the coming year. In its annual report to Congress, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission recommended the following rate changes: acute-care hospitals – a two percent rate increase and a suggestion that the difference between this two percent increase and the payment increase specified by law be used to increase the rewards hospitals may earn under Medicare’s hospital value incentive program. As a result, the value incentive program would offer a possible 0.8 percent in bonus payments, and with the recommended elimination of the 0.5 percent penalty for which hospitals [...]

iqtsupport2020-03-26T11:48:02-04:00March 26, 2020|Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Medicare, Medicare reimbursement policy, MedPAC|

MedPAC Meets

Last week the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission met in Washington, D.C. to discuss a number of Medicare payment issues. The issues on MedPAC’s March agenda were: Addressing Medicare Shared Savings Program vulnerabilities The role of specialists in alternative payment models and accountable care organizations Realigning incentives in Medicare Part D Redesigning the Medicare Advantage quality bonus program Mandated report: Impact of changes in the 21st Century Cures Act to risk adjustment for Medicare Advantage enrollees Improving Medicare’s end-stage renal disease prospective payment system Separately payable drugs in the hospital outpatient prospective payment system MedPAC is an independent congressional agency that advises [...]

iqtsupport2020-03-09T09:40:54-04:00March 9, 2020|Accountable Care Organization, ACO, Alternative payment models, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Medicare, Medicare regulations, Medicare reimbursement policy, MedPAC|

340B Doesn’t Drive Up Hospital Drug Spending, MedPAC Says

Hospitals do not prescribe more expensive drugs because they know the 340B program will help pay for them. That is the conclusion drawn in a recent analysis by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission. Prescription drug spending has risen markedly in recent years and the pharmaceutical industry maintains that part of that increase can be attributed to hospitals that participate in the section 340B prescription drug discount program, which requires pharmaceutical companies to give discounts to hospitals and other selected providers that care for especially large numbers of low-income patients. A new analysis by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, however, concludes [...]

iqtsupport2020-01-28T09:36:25-05:00January 28, 2020|340b, MedPAC|

MedPAC Meets

Last week the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission met in Washington, D.C. to discuss a number of Medicare payment issues. The issues on MedPAC’s January agenda were: The Medicare prescription drug program (Part D): status report and options for restructuring Redesigning the Medicare Advantage quality program: initial modeling of a value incentive program Hospital inpatient and outpatient payments Physician payments Outpatient dialysis payments Skilled nursing facility, home health, inpatient rehabilitation facility, and long-term-care hospital payments Hospice and ambulatory surgery center payments The 340B program ACO beneficiary assignment MedPAC is an independent congressional agency that advises Congress on issues involving the Medicare program. [...]

iqtsupport2020-01-22T06:00:06-05:00January 22, 2020|Accountable Care Organization, ACO, Medicare, Medicare post-acute care, Medicare regulations, Medicare reimbursement policy, MedPAC|

MedPAC Meeting Transcript Now Available

Last week the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission met in Washington, D.C. The Medicare payment issues on its agenda were: Assessing payment adequacy and updating payments: Physician and other health professional services Assessing payment adequacy and updating payments: Ambulatory surgical center services Assessing payment adequacy and updating payments: Hospital inpatient and outpatient services; Mandated report: Expanding the post-acute care transfer policy to hospice Assessing payment adequacy and updating payments: Skilled nursing facility services Assessing payment adequacy and updating payments: Home health care services Assessing payment adequacy and updating payments: Inpatient rehabilitation facility services Assessing payment adequacy and updating payments: Long-term care [...]

iqtsupport2019-12-13T06:00:56-05:00December 13, 2019|hospitals, Medicare, Medicare post-acute care, Medicare regulations, Medicare reimbursement policy, MedPAC|

MedPAC Considers No Pay Raise for Ambulatory Surgical Centers

Next month MedPAC will likely vote to recommend that ambulatory surgical centers receive no increase in their Medicare payments in 2021. Meeting last week in Washington, D.C., members of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission appeared to support strongly a staff recommendation to keep Medicare ambulatory surgical center payments where they are now – enough so to expedite resolution of the issue by voting on it at MedPAC’s next meeting, in mid-January. MedPAC also will vote on a proposal to require ambulatory surgical centers to provide annual cost reports to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. CMS would use those [...]

iqtsupport2019-12-12T06:00:31-05:00December 12, 2019|Medicare reimbursement policy, MedPAC|

MedPAC Meets

Last week the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission met in Washington, D.C. to discuss a number of Medicare payment issues. The issues on MedPAC’s December agenda were: Assessing payment adequacy and updating payments: Physician and other health professional services Assessing payment adequacy and updating payments: Ambulatory surgical center services Assessing payment adequacy and updating payments: Hospital inpatient and outpatient services; Mandated report: Expanding the post-acute care transfer policy to hospice Assessing payment adequacy and updating payments: Skilled nursing facility services Assessing payment adequacy and updating payments: Home health care services Assessing payment adequacy and updating payments: Inpatient rehabilitation facility services Assessing payment [...]

iqtsupport2019-12-10T06:00:07-05:00December 10, 2019|Medicare, Medicare post-acute care, Medicare regulations, Medicare reimbursement policy, MedPAC, post-acute care|