March 2-3, 2026

03/02/2026 . 10:30 am - 11:30 am

Mandated report: Assessment of the Medicare ground ambulance data collection system

Staff Contacts:

ISSUE: The Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 directs the Commission to assess the information submitted by ground ambulance service providers under a recently implemented data collection effort, including the burden on ambulance organizations of collecting the data. The mandated report is due June 15, 2026.

KEY POINTS: The Commission must provide a recommendation to the Congress as to whether CMS should continue to collect these data and whether the data collection system should be revised.

ACTION: Commissioners will review the findings and discuss the Chair’s draft recommendation.

03/02/2026 . 11:35 am - 12:35 pm

Access to hospice and certain complex palliative services for beneficiaries with end-stage renal disease and beneficiaries with cancer

Staff Contacts:

ISSUE: Concerns have been raised about access to care under the hospice benefit for certain high-cost complex services that may be palliative for some hospice beneficiaries—specifically, dialysis for beneficiaries with ESRD and radiation, blood transfusions, and chemotherapy for beneficiaries with cancer.

KEY POINTS: The Commission has discussed hospice use among decedents with ESRD and those with blood cancer and reviewed findings from interviews with providers and family members of hospice patients. Commissioners have also discussed several policy approaches that could be considered.

ACTION: Commissioners will review and discuss the draft report.

03/02/2026 . 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm

Provider participation in Medicare Advantage networks

Staff Contacts:

ISSUE: One key distinction between Medicare Advantage (MA) and fee-for-service Medicare is that MA beneficiaries trade the choice of any provider participating in Medicare for a more managed set of relationships with providers in an MA plan’s network. When used appropriately, MA plan networks can encourage the use of providers that perform better on cost and quality and therefore can have positive implications for both.

KEY POINTS: Assessing MA provider networks is important to ensure that plans provide adequate access to the full range of Medicare benefits.

ACTION: Commissioners will review and discuss initial findings from the first phase of our work on MA plans’ use of provider networks and provide feedback on next steps.

03/02/2026 . 3:35 pm - 5:00 pm

Considerations for implementing Medicare Advantage encounter data in risk adjustment

Staff Contacts:

ISSUE: Medicare’s payments to MA plans are based in part on enrollees’ risk scores, which are a beneficiary-specific index of expected spending relative to the national average. Medicare’s current risk-adjustment model is estimated using spending and diagnostic data for fee-for-service (FFS) beneficiaries. Therefore, risk scores reflect relationships between diagnostic coding patterns and spending in FFS. Because diagnoses are coded more frequently in MA than in FFS, payments to MA plans are higher than they otherwise would be, especially for plans that code the most.

KEY POINTS: CMS has noted that an MA encounter-based risk-adjustment model would better align with MA coding and spending patterns and in 2024 stated that it is working on developing such a model.

ACTION: Commissioners will discuss technical considerations for using MA encounter data, key policy decisions for implementing an MA-based risk model, and potential implications for payment accuracy.

03/03/2026 . 9:30 am - 10:50 am

The complexity of Medicare enrollment decisions for beneficiaries

Staff Contacts:

ISSUE: Once an individual becomes eligible for Medicare and during certain times of the year or after specified situations occur, they must make several complex decisions about their coverage.

KEY POINTS: Beneficiaries often report confusion about enrolling in Medicare and their different coverage options.

ACTION: Commissioners will review and discuss information on notification of Medicare eligibility, Medicare enrollment options, late enrollment penalties, factors affecting the choice between fee-for-service Medicare and Medicare Advantage.

03/03/2026 . 11:00 am - 12:00 pm

Medicare Part B premium payment basics

Staff Contacts:

ISSUE: Each year, MedPAC posts brief overviews explaining how Medicare’s various payment systems operate, known as the “Payment Basics” series.

KEY POINTS: To provide more information on the Medicare Part B premium, the Commission is developing a new payment basics on this topic.

ACTION: Commissioners will review the draft Part B premium Payment Basics.