Medicare Payment Advisory Commission

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 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|

MedPAC Issues Annual Report to Congress

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission has sent its mandatory annual report to Congress. Included in the report are sections on: Beneficiary enrollment in Medicare: eligibility notification, enrollment process, and Part B late enrollment penalties. Restructuring Medicare Part D for the era of specialty drugs. Medicare payment strategies to improve price competition and value for Part B drugs. MedPAC’s mandated report to Congress on clinician payments. Issues in Medicare beneficiaries’ access to primary care. Assessment of the Medicare Shared Savings Program’s effect on Medicare spending. Ensuring the accuracy and completeness of Medicare Advantage encounter data. Redesigning the Medicare Advantage quality bonus [...]

iqtsupport2019-06-19T11:57:26-04:00June 19, 2019|Alternative payment models, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 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 April agenda were: Expanding the use of value-based payment in Medicare Medicare Shared Savings Program performance Redesigning the Medicare Advantage quality bonus program Increasing the accuracy and completeness of Medicare Advantage encounter data Evaluating patient functional assessment data reported by post-acute-care providers Options for slowing the growth of Medicare fee-for-service spending for emergency department services Options to increase the affordability of specialty drugs and biologics in Medicare Part D Improving payment for low-volume and isolated outpatient dialysis [...]

iqtsupport2019-04-09T06:00:04-04:00April 9, 2019|Alternative payment models, hospitals, Medicare, Medicare post-acute care, Medicare regulations, Medicare reimbursement policy, MedPAC, post-acute care|

MedPAC Offers Recommendations on FY 2020 Rates, More

Last week the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission released its annual report to Congress. Included in this report are MedPAC’s Medicare rate recommendations for the coming year. They are: hospital inpatient rates – a two percent increase hospital outpatient rates – a two percent increase physician and other health professional services rates – no update skilled nursing facilities – no 2020 increase home health agencies – a five percent rate reduction inpatient rehabilitation facilities – a five percent rate reduction long-term-care hospital services – a two percent increase hospice services – a two percent rate reduction MedPAC also recommended that the [...]

iqtsupport2019-03-19T06:00:37-04:00March 19, 2019|Medicare, Medicare post-acute care, Medicare reimbursement policy, MedPAC, Uncategorized|

MedPAC Discusses ED Coding Changes

Members of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission discussed the possibility of recommending to Congress that it call for national guidelines for how hospitals code emergency department services. The change may be needed, the commissioners suggested at their March meeting, because hospitals have gravitated toward coding for higher intensity services as time passes. Such a change, if implemented, could result in less emergency department revenue for some hospitals. Learn more in the Healthcare Dive article “MedPAC eyes changes to ED coding, Part B drug pricing.”

iqtsupport2019-03-15T06:00:51-04:00March 15, 2019|Medicare, MedPAC|

MedPAC Debates Post-Acute Payments

As the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services continues to develop a unified payment system for all post-acute-care providers, Congress’s advisors on Medicare payment policy appear ready to weigh in on an important aspect of such a system: Whether payments should be based on entire episodes of care or individual stays in post-acute-care facilities. And at least for now, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission is leaning toward recommending that post-acute-care payments be based on individual stays. At their March public meeting, MedPAC commissioners expressed concern that post-acute-care payments based on entire episodes of care might create financial incentives for providers [...]

iqtsupport2019-03-13T14:55:27-04:00March 13, 2019|Medicare post-acute care, 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: two Medicare payment strategies to improve price competition and value for Part B drugs: reference pricing and binding arbitration options for slowing the growth of Medicare fee-for-service spending for emergency department service. Medicare’s role in the supply of primary care physicians evaluating an episode-based payment system for post-acute care mandated report: changes in post-acute and hospice care following the implementation of the long-term care hospital dual payment rate structure MedPAC is an independent congressional [...]

iqtsupport2019-03-12T06:00:49-04:00March 12, 2019|Medicare, Medicare post-acute care, Medicare reimbursement policy, MedPAC, post-acute care|

MedPAC Mulls Billing Change for Nurse Practitioners, Physician Assistants

Medicare would permit nurse practitioners and physician assistants to bill directly for their services under a proposal being considered by the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission. Currently such services are billed as “incident to” physician services, but according to a report in Becker’s Hospital Review, MedPAC staff told commissioners there are problems with “incident to” billing because it “obscures policymakers’ knowledge of who is providing care for beneficiaries,” “inhibits accurate valuation of fee schedule services,” and “increases Medicare beneficiary spending.” Staff also said that physician assistants and nurse practitioners increasingly practice outside of primary care. MedPAC is an independent congressional agency [...]

iqtsupport2018-12-13T06:00:59-05:00December 13, 2018|Medicare, Medicare reimbursement policy, MedPAC|