Commission Recommendations
MedPAC makes recommendations to the Congress and to the Secretary of Health and Human Services on issues affecting the administration of the Medicare program. With its recommendations, the Commission strives to improve the delivery of care, while ensuring financial stability and maximizing value for the program. After extensive analysis and evaluation, our recommendations are discussed and voted on by Commissioners in our public meetings. Recommendations are typically published in two main reports, released in March and June of each year.
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Ambulatory surgical care servicesThe Congress should eliminate the update to the payment rates for ambulatory surgical centers for calendar year 2018. The Congress should also require ambulatory surgical centers to submit cost data |
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Home health care servicesThe Congress should reduce home health payment rates by 5 percent in 2018 and implement a two-year rebasing of the payment system beginning in 2019. The Congress should direct the Secretary to revise the prospective payment system to eliminate the use of the number of therapy visits as a factor in payment determinations, concurrent with… Read more » |
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Hospice servicesThe Congress should eliminate the update to the hospice payment rates for fiscal year 2018. |
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Hospital inpatient and outpatient services (1)The Secretary should require hospitals to add a modifier on claims for all services provided at off-campus stand-alone emergency department facilities. |
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Hospital inpatient and outpatient services (2)The Congress should update the inpatient and outpatient payments by the amounts specified in current law |
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Inpatient rehabilitation facility servicesThe Congress should reduce the Medicare payment rate for inpatient rehabilitation facilities by 5 percent for fiscal year 2018. Additionally, the Commission reiterates its March 2016 recommendations on the inpatient rehabilitation facility prospective payment system. |
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Long-term care hospital servicesThe Congress should eliminate the update to the payment rates under the long-term care hospital prospective payment system for fiscal year 2018. |
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Outpatient dialysis servicesThe Congress should increase the outpatient dialysis base payment rate by the update specified in current law for calendar year 2018. |
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Physician and other health professional servicesThe Congress should increase payment rates for physician and other health professional services by the amount specified in current law for calendar year 2018. |
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Skilled nursing facility servicesThe Congress should eliminate the market basket updates for 2018 and 2019 and direct the Secretary to revise the prospective payment system (PPS) for skilled nursing facilities. In 2020, the Secretary should report to the Congress on the impacts of the reformed PPS and make any additional adjustments to payments needed to more closely align… Read more » |
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