Medicare Payment Advisory Commission

MedPAC Offers 2022 Rate Recommendations

MedPAC has recommended modest pay increases for some health care providers and no increases for others in its annual report on Medicare payment policy to Congress. In the report, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission recommends the following changes in Medicare rates for 2022: 2% increase for Medicare inpatient and outpatient services 2% increase for long-term-care hospitals no increase for doctors and other medical professionals no increases for ambulatory surgical centers, outpatient dialysis facilities, skilled nursing facilities, and hospices 5% reductions for home health agencies and inpatient rehabilitation facilities While MedPAC’s recommendations to Congress are not binding on the administration, its [...]

iqtsupport2021-03-18T13:00:08-04:00March 18, 2021|Medicare, Medicare reimbursement policy, MedPAC|

Too Many Medicare APMs?

MedPAC thinks maybe that’s the case. At the recent meeting of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, the agency’s commissioners suggested that they may recommend that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reduce its assortment of alternative payment model programs. As reported by MedPage Today, a draft of MedPAC’s June report to Congress states that The [Health and Human Services] Secretary should implement a more coordinated portfolio of fewer alternative payment models (APMs) that support the strategic objectives of reducing spending and improving quality. In recent years CMS’s Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation has tested 54 different APMs; few [...]

iqtsupport2021-03-11T06:00:58-05:00March 11, 2021|Alternative payment models, MedPAC|

MedPAC Meets

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission met in Washington, D.C. last week to discuss various Medicare payment issues. Among the issues discussed at MedPAC’s March meeting were: Medicare beneficiary access to care in rural areas skilled nursing facility value-based purchasing program and proposed replacement streamlining CMS’s portfolio of alternative payment models balancing efficiency with equity in Medicare Advantage benchmark policy relationship between clinician services and other Medicare services revising Medicare’s indirect medical education payments to better reflect teaching hospitals’ costs Medicare’s vaccine coverage and payment separately payable drugs in the hospital outpatient prospective payment system MedPAC is an independent congressional agency [...]

iqtsupport2021-03-10T06:00:08-05:00March 10, 2021|Medicare, MedPAC|

MedPAC Meets

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission met in Washington, D.C. recently to discuss various Medicare payment issues. Among the issues discussed at MedPAC’s January meeting were: hospital inpatient and outpatient payments physician and health professionals payments the possible expansion of the post-acute transfer policy to hospice ambulatory surgical center, outpatient dialysis, and hospice payments Medicare payments for skilled nursing facilities, long-term hospitals, inpatient rehabilitation facilities, and home health services the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation’s development and implementation of alternative payment models the future of telehealth after the COVID-19 public health emergency ends a status report on the Medicare Part [...]

iqtsupport2021-01-25T06:00:58-05:00January 25, 2021|Alternative payment models, Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, CMMI, 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. MedPAC’s proposed Medicare 2021 payment recommendations dominated the December agenda, including: hospital inpatient and outpatient payments ambulatory surgical center payments physician and health professional payments hospice payments home health care payments inpatient rehabilitation facility payments long-term care hospital payments In addition, MedPAC discussed Medicare’s policy for transfers between post-acute-care facilities and hospice and received a staff update on the Medicare Advantage program. MedPAC is an independent congressional agency that advises Congress on issues involving Medicare. While its recommendations are not binding [...]

iqtsupport2020-12-10T06:00:36-05:00December 10, 2020|Medicare, Medicare post-acute care, 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 October agenda were: the skilled nursing facility value-based payment system future research directions in hospice payments Medicare Advantage benchmark policy indirect medical education: current Medicare policy, concerns, and principles for revising the evolution of Medicare’s advanced alternative payment models vertical integration and Medicare payment policy MedPAC is an independent congressional agency that advises Congress on issues involving the Medicare program. While its recommendations are not binding on either Congress or the administration, MedPAC is highly influential in [...]

iqtsupport2020-10-09T06:00:26-04:00October 9, 2020|Alternative payment models, Medicare, Medicare regulations, Medicare reimbursement policy, 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|