MedPAC

Subscribe to MedPAC

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) released its 2021 Medicare provider rate update recommendations on March 13, 2020 – the same day President Trump declared a national emergency due to COVID-19.  MedPAC’s recommendations were based on an assessment of various Medicare “payment adequacy indicators” that are unlikely to reflect the state of the health…

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) has issued its annual report to Congress with recommendations for updates to Medicare fee-for-service rates for 2020.

With regard to hospital services, MedPAC recommends that Congress update Medicare inpatient and outpatient prospective payment system (PPS) rates by 2% in 2020.  MedPAC also proposes a new hospital value incentive program (HVIP) to replace Medicare’s current inpatient hospital quality programs.[1]  In short, the HVIP would include a small set of population-based outcome, patient experience, and value measures; score all hospitals based on the same prospectively-set performance targets; and account for social risk factors by distributing payment adjustments through peer grouping.  MedPAC believes the HVIP “will be simpler and will produce more equitable results compared with existing quality payment programs.”

MedPAC recommends no change to Medicare physician fee schedule rates in 2020, in accordance with the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015.  MedPAC reiterates its criticism of current Merit-based Incentive Payment System measures, stating that they “are neither effective in assessing true clinician quality nor appropriate for Medicare’s value-based purchasing programs.”

MedPAC continues to call for implementation of a unified PPS for post-acute care (PAC) providers, including skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), home health agencies (HHAs), inpatient rehabilitation facilities (IRFs), and long-term care hospitals (LTCHs).   Acknowledging that implementation of a unified PAC PPS “is on a longer timetable,” MedPAC recommends the following setting-specific interim payment updates for 2020:
Continue Reading MedPAC Recommends Medicare Payment Updates for 2020

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) has released its annual report to Congress on “Medicare and the Health Care Delivery System.” This year’s report includes recommendations for changes to emergency department services policies, along with analyses of potential changes that would impact physicians, medical equipment suppliers, post-acute care providers, and others.  Highlights include the following:…

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) has released recommendations to Congress regarding how Medicare fee-for-service payment system rates should be adjusted in 2018. One of the focus areas for MedPAC is post-acute care (PAC), which includes skilled nursing facility (SNF), home health agency (HHA), inpatient rehabilitation facility (IRF), and long-term care hospital (LTCH) services.  According to MedPAC, the “unnecessarily high level of spending and the inequity of payments across different types of patients” necessitate changes to both payment levels and overall system design.  MedPAC therefore reiterates its previous recommendation for a uniform Medicare PAC prospective payment system (PPS) that bases payments on patient characteristics; MedPAC believes that transition to the PAC PPS could begin as early as 2021. In the meantime, MedPAC recommends that Congress:
Continue Reading Post-Acute Care Providers Targeted for Cuts in MedPAC’s Latest Report to Congress

MedPAC has released its June 2016 Report to the Congress on Medicare and the Health Care Delivery System. The report includes recommendations for a number of Medicare policy reforms and analyses of various health care market developments. Several chapters address Medicare drug policy, including a review of external factors that influence the prices Medicare pays for prescription drugs. With regard to Medicare Part B drug policy, MedPAC discusses potential modifications to Medicare Part B drug reimbursement, such as reducing dispensing and supplying fees, along with approaches to improving the quality and reducing the costs of oncology care (since more than half of Medicare Part B drug spending is associated with anticancer and related drugs). Likewise, MedPAC examines the Medicare Part D prescription drug program and offers recommendations for giving plan sponsors greater financial incentives and mechanisms to manage the benefits of high-cost enrollees; exclude manufacturer discounts on brand-name drugs from counting as enrollees’ true out-of-pocket spending; eliminate beneficiary cost sharing above the catastrophic cap; and increase financial incentives for low-income beneficiaries to use lower-cost drugs and biologicals.

MedPAC also discusses development of a unified Medicare payment system for post-acute care, including its unified prospective payment system (PPS) prototype that it believes accurately predicts resource needs for nearly all patient groups. MedPAC raises various implementation considerations, including the need to develop separate payment models for nontherapy ancillary services and the combination of routine and therapy services; adjustments to recognize lower costs in home health agencies compared to institutional settings; the need for outlier policies and labor cost adjustments; future adjustments to reward high-quality, efficient care; conforming regulatory reforms; and an appropriate transition period, among other policy provisions.

In addition, the report addresses:
Continue Reading MedPAC Issues Recommendations on Medicare Drug, Post-Acute Care, and Other Payment Policies

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) has released its annual recommendations to Congress on Medicare policies, including Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) payment updates and a status report on the Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D programs.  The following are highlights of the recommendations for 2017 (some of which were recommended previously):
Continue Reading MedPAC Releases Annual Recommendations to Congress on Medicare Policy

The next Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) meeting is scheduled for October 8 -9, 2015. Topics on the agenda include: Medicare drug spending; Alternative Payment Models and the Merit-based Incentive Payment System; Medicare Advantage coding intensity, health risk assessments, benchmarks, and star ratings; and access to emergency care in rural areas.

The next Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) meeting is scheduled for September 10-11, 2015. Topics on the agenda include, among others: developing a unified payment system for post-acute care; Medicare Advantage encounter data and star ratings; Medicare drug spending; and payments from drug and device manufacturers to physicians and teaching hospitals.

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) has released its 2015 Data Book on Health Care Spending and the Medicare Program. The publication provides information on national health care and Medicare spending, Medicare and dual-eligible beneficiary demographics, Medicare quality, and Medicare beneficiary liability, along with Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D drug program data. The report…

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) has released its June 2015 Report to the Congress on Medicare and the Health Care Delivery System. The report includes a series of recommendations on Medicare hospital short-stay policy, in response in part to hospital concerns about related Medicare Recovery Audit Contractor (RAC) Program audits and appeals and the financial impact on beneficiaries associated with the growing use of outpatient observation day status. Specifically, MedPAC recommends that:
Continue Reading MedPAC Report to Congress on Medicare and the Health Care Delivery System

On April 2-3, 2015, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) is meeting to discuss various Medicare policy issues, including: hospital short stay policy; polypharmacy/multiple drug use (focusing on Part D opioid use); Medicare Part D risk sharing; measuring low-value care; using episode bundles to improve care efficiency (including potential refinements to the Medicare spending per…

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) has released its annual recommendations to Congress on Medicare policies, including Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) payment updates and a status report on the Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D programs. The following are highlights of the recommendations for 2016 (many of which were recommended previously):
Continue Reading MedPAC Report to Congress on Medicare Policy

In December 2014, CMS released a 329-page list of quality measures under consideration for the Medicare program. In a January 13, 2015 comment letter, MedPAC observes that volume of measures under consideration “reinforces our concerns that Medicare’s provider-level measurement activities are accelerating without regard to the costs or benefits of an ever-increasing number of measures.” MedPAC suggests that CMS is “relying on too many clinical process measures that are, at best, weakly correlated with health outcomes.” Moreover, including numerous process measures could reinforce “undesirable payment incentives in FFS Medicare to increase the volume of services and is overly burdensome on providers to report, while yielding limited information to support clinical improvement or beneficiary choice.” While acknowledging that CMS includes more measures than will be adopted in order to solicit comments, MedPAC urges CMS to “carefully consider whether each additional measure would simply reinforce or exacerbate the current system’s problems.”

The following is MedPAC’s count of measures under consideration (note that the largest number of measures under review this year apply to accountable care organizations):Continue Reading MedPAC Voices Concerns about Growing Volume, Burden of Medicare Quality Measures

On January 15-16, 2015, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) is meeting to discuss a number of Medicare topics, including, among others: post-acute care trends; payment updates for a number of provider types; relative costs of Medicare Advantage, accountable care organizations, and fee-for-service Medicare; hospital short stay policy; and quality measurement.

MedPAC is meeting on October 9 and 10, 2014 to discuss a variety of Medicare policy issues, including: international comparison of rates paid to hospitals; sharing risk in Medicare Part D; potentially inappropriate opioid use in Medicare Part D; the next generation of Medicare beneficiaries; private-sector initiatives to manage post-acute care; and validating relative value…

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) has released its 2014 Data Book on Health Care Spending and the Medicare Program. The volume provides detailed information regarding national health care and Medicare spending and utilization, sector profit margins, Medicare and dual-eligible beneficiary demographics, Medicare quality, Medicare beneficiary and other payer liability, and related issues.

Recent Congressional hearings on health policy issues include the following:

  • A House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee “21st Century Cures Roundtable” discussed steps Congress can take to bridge the gap between medical advances and the regulatory policies that govern them, and ultimately advance digital and personalized health care. The panel also released a related white

…

On June 13, 2014, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) released its June 2014 Report to the Congress on Medicare and the Health Care Delivery System. Among other things, MedPAC addresses ways to align Medicare fee-for-service (FFS), Medicare Advantage, and accountable care organization policies on payment, risk adjustment, and quality measurement. MedPAC also discusses various…