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|

MedPAC to Meet Tomorrow

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission meets this Thursday and Friday in Washington, D.C. MedPAC’s December agenda is dominated by Medicare payment issues: how much Medicare should pay for different types of services in calendar year 2021 and FY 2021. The services to be addressed during the December 5-6 meetings are physician and other health professional services, ambulatory surgical center services, hospital inpatient and outpatient services, skilling nursing facility services, home health services, inpatient rehabilitation facility services, long-term care hospital services, outpatient dialysis services, and hospice services. In addition, MedPAC commissioners will discuss their mandated report on expanding Medicare’s post-acute care [...]

iqtsupport2019-12-04T06:00:06-05:00December 4, 2019|Medicare, Medicare post-acute care, 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 November agenda were: congressional request on health care provider consolidation increasing the supply of primary care physicians redesigning the Medicare Advantage quality bonus program reforming the benchmarks in the Medicare Advantage payment system considerations for plans serving low-income beneficiaries in the restructuring of Medicare Part D post-acute care spending under the Medicare Shared Savings Program MedPAC is an independent congressional agency that advises Congress on issues involving the Medicare program. While its recommendations are not binding on [...]

iqtsupport2019-11-12T06:00:16-05:00November 12, 2019|Alternative payment models, hospitals, Medicare, Medicare post-acute care, Medicare reimbursement policy, MedPAC|

No Primary Doc Shortage for Medicare Patients – at Least Not Yet

Medicare patients currently have adequate access to primary care physicians, according to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission. But that could change in the near future, MedPAC warns. Amid long-term concerns about whether there are enough primary care doctors, a new MedPAC report found that there are even fewer primary care doctors than most people believe. MedPAC reached this conclusion after finding that approximately one out of every five doctors thought to be working as primary care physicians now labor instead as hospitalists. As a result, growth in the number of primary care physicians has been negligible during the current decade. [...]

iqtsupport2019-10-09T06:00:54-04:00October 9, 2019|Medicare, 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 October agenda were: restructuring Medicare Part D improving Medicare payment for low-volume and isolated outpatient dialysis facilities updates to the methods used to assess the adequacy of Medicare’s payments for physicians and other health professionals population-based outcome measures: avoidable hospitalizations and emergency department visits aligning benefits and cost-sharing under a unified payment system for post-acute care policy options to modify the hospice aggregate cap MedPAC is an independent congressional agency that advises Congress on issues involving the [...]

iqtsupport2019-10-07T06:00:37-04:00October 7, 2019|Medicaid, Medicare, Medicare post-acute care, 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: context for Medicare payment policy the effects of Medicare Advantage “spillover” on Medicare fee-for-service spending and coding evaluation of the hospital readmissions reduction program examining the effects of competitive bidding for diabetes testing supplies and improving payment policies for DMEPOS products excluded from competitive bidding a value incentive program for post-acute-care providers Medicare indirect medical education (IME) policy, concerns, and considerations for revising MedPAC is an independent congressional agency that advises Congress on issues [...]

iqtsupport2019-09-12T09:50:13-04:00September 12, 2019|Medicare, Medicare post-acute care, Medicare reimbursement policy, MedPAC|