In July 2019, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services proposed a mandatory End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Treatment Choices (ETC) Model that aimed to increase the use of home dialysis by beneficiaries with ESRD, and increase kidney transplantation among adult ESRD beneficiaries (“Medicare Program: Specialty Care Models to Improve Quality of Care and Reduce Expenditures,” Federal… Read more »
Category: Ambulatory care settings
Models for preserving access to emergency care in rural areas
The Commission has consistently stated that rural beneficiaries’ access to emergency services needs to be preserved. Since January 2013, there have been 41 hospital closures in rural counties and rural parts of urban communities. While some closures reflect excess capacity in areas, in other cases, the closed hospital has been the sole emergency room in the area. It is both the concern over maintaining access to care and concerns over inefficiencies in the current delivery system that motivated the Commission’s October session on preserving rural access to emergency services.
Upcoming: MedPAC’s Annual Payment Updates
At our November meeting, we had a session on beneficiary access to hospital services, which was the first part of MedPAC’s yearly work on payment updates. Here’s an explainer on why we do this work and what it entails…