MedPAC

Readmissions Program Working; Expansion in Order?

The Medicare hospital readmissions reduction program is working, according to the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission. And it may even be worth expanding to additional medical conditions, MedPAC members believe. According to MedPAC, hospital readmissions among patients with medical conditions covered by the readmissions reduction program have declined faster than readmissions among patients with medical conditions not covered by the program, suggesting that expanding the program to additional medical conditions could lead to an even greater reduction in the number of avoidable Medicare-covered readmissions. Learn more about changes in the readmission rate since the readmissions reduction program was introduced and whether [...]

iqtsupport2018-03-07T06:00:23-05:00March 7, 2018|Medicare, Medicare regulations, MedPAC|

MedPAC Meets

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, which advises Congress on Medicare payment issues, met last week in Washington, D.C. Among the issues on MedPAC’s agenda were: paying for sequential stays in a unified Medicare payment system for post-acute care encouraging Medicare beneficiaries to use higher-quality post-acute care providers using payment policy to ensure appropriate access to and use of hospital emergency department services the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ financial alignment demonstration for dual-eligible beneficiaries the effectiveness of the Medicare hospital readmissions reduction program population-based quality measures such as preventable admissions and home and community days Go here, to MedPAC’s [...]

iqtsupport2018-03-05T06:00:23-05:00March 5, 2018|Medicare, Medicare post-acute care, Medicare regulations, MedPAC|

Docs Not Scoring Performance Bonuses

Relatively few physicians will receive Medicare pay-for-performance bonuses under Medicare’s value-based modifier program in 2018. The question now is whether this is because of uninspiring performance or indifference to the program. Of the approximately 1.1 million clinicians who participate in Medicare, only two percent – 22,000 – will receive pay increases in 2018 based on their 2016 performance. Those raises will range from 6.6 percent to 19.9 percent. Most doctors will receive neither bonuses nor penalties. And roughly 300,000 failed to submit the data required by the program. In the past they would have been penalized for this failure but [...]

iqtsupport2018-01-25T06:00:16-05:00January 25, 2018|Medicare, Medicare regulations, MedPAC|

MedPAC Meets

Last week the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission held two days of public meetings in Washington, D.C. During the sessions MedPAC, a non-partisan legislative branch agency that advises Congress on Medicare payment issues, addressed the following subjects: a Medicare Advantage status report a Medicare prescription drug program (Part D) status report hospital inpatient and outpatient payments physician payments ambulatory surgical center, dialysis center, and hospice payments post-acute care facility payments the hospital readmissions reduction program telehealth accountable care organizations Go here to see the issue briefs and presentations used during the meetings.

iqtsupport2018-01-18T06:00:18-05:00January 18, 2018|Accountable Care Organization, ACO, Medicare, Medicare post-acute care, MedPAC|

MedPAC Meets

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission met in Washington, D.C. last week. Among the issues on the agenda of the independent agency that advises Congress on Medicare payment issues were: payment adequacy for physicians and other health professional services An alternative to the merit-based incentive payment system (MIPS) payment adequacy for hospital inpatient and outpatient services payment adequacy for ambulatory surgical center services payment adequacy and improving the equity of payments for skilled nursing facility services payment adequacy for inpatient rehabilitation services payment adequacy for long-term-care hospital services payment adequacy for home health services payment adequacy for outpatient dialysis services payment [...]

iqtsupport2017-12-13T06:00:25-05:00December 13, 2017|hospitals, Medicare, MedPAC|

MedPAC Meets

The agency that advises Congress on Medicare payment issues met in Washington, D.C. last week. At that meeting, members of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission discussed a number of Medicare payment issues, including: refining an alternative to the merit-based incentive payment system (MIPS) improving incentives in the emergency debarment payment system rebalancing the physician fee schedule towards primary care increasing the equity of payments within each post-acute-care setting principles for evaluating the expansion of Medicare’s coverage of telehealth services Find the issue briefs and presentations used during the meeting to guide these discussions here, on MedPAC’s web site.

iqtsupport2017-11-07T06:00:47-05:00November 7, 2017|MedPAC|

MedPAC Meets

The independent agency that advises Congress and the administration on Medicare payment policies met last week in Washington, D.C. Among the issues discussed at the meeting of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission were: the merit-based incentive payment system a unified payment system for post-acute care telehealth a redesign of Medicare’s hospital value incentive program Find the presentations and issue briefs for these subjects and others discussed at the MedPAC meeting here, on MedPAC’s web site.

iqtsupport2017-10-11T06:00:23-04:00October 11, 2017|Medicare, MedPAC|

MedPAC Meets

Members of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission met last week in Washington, D.C. Among the issues they discussed during their two days of meetings were Medicare coverage policy, Medicare coverage of telehealth services, pharmacy benefit managers and specialty pharmacies, and physician supervision requirements in critical access and small rural hospitals. Go here to see the issue briefs and presentations that were discussed during the meeting.

iqtsupport2017-09-13T06:00:10-04:00September 13, 2017|Medicare, MedPAC|

MedPAC Comments on Proposed Physician Fee Schedule

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission has written to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to convey its views on CMS’s proposed revisions to Medicare physician payment policies for 2018. Among the issues MedPAC addresses in its comment letter are proposed payments to physicians for nonexcepted items and services provided in nonexcepted off-campus provider-based hospital departments, the Medicare shared savings program, and the Medicare diabetes prevention program. See CMS’s comment letter here.

iqtsupport2017-09-12T06:00:52-04:00September 12, 2017|Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Medicare, Medicare regulations, MedPAC|

MedPAC Comments on Proposed Medicare Outpatient Payment Rule

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission has weighed in with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on its proposed regulation governing the 2018 hospital outpatient prospective payment system and ambulatory surgical center payment systems and quality reporting programs. Among the issues MedPAC addresses in its comment letter to CMS are the proposal to reduce Medicare reimbursement for 340B-covered prescription drugs; how to reinvest the savings such a payment cut would produce; the ability of hospitals to expand the services they offer at hospital-based outpatient departments; proposed changes in the Medicare hospital outpatient quality reporting program and ambulatory surgery center quality [...]

iqtsupport2017-09-11T09:59:57-04:00September 11, 2017|Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, hospitals, Medicare regulations, MedPAC|