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.
| Recommendations | Topic(s) | Date | Appeared In |
|---|---|---|---|
Improving Medicare’s policies for separately payable drugs in the hospital outpatient prospective payment system (2)The Secretary should specify that the separately payable non-pass-through policy in the hospital outpatient prospective payment system applies only to drugs and biologics that are the reason for a visit and meet a defined cost threshold. |
|
June 2021 |
June 2021 - Chapter 8 |
Revising Medicare’s indirect medical education payments to better reflect teaching hospitals’ costsThe Congress should require CMS to transition to empirically justified indirect medical education adjustments to both inpatient and outpatient Medicare payments. |
|
June 2021 |
June 2021 - Chapter 6 |
Hospital inpatient and outpatient servicesFor fiscal year 2022, the Congress should update the 2021 Medicare base payment rates for acute care hospitals by 2 percent. |
|
March 2021 |
March 2021 - Chapter 3 |
Hospital inpatient and outpatient servicesThe Congress should: For 2021, update the 2020 Medicare base payment rates for acute care hospitals by 2 percent; and Provide hospitals with an amount equal to the difference between the update recommendation and the amount specified in current law through the Commission’s recommended hospital value incentive program (HVIP) |
|
March 2020 |
March 2020 - Chapter 3 |
Options for slowing the growth of Medicare fee-for-service spending for emergency department servicesThe Secretary should develop and implement a set of national guidelines for coding hospital emergency department visits under the outpatient prospective payment system by 2022. |
|
June 2019 |
June 2019 - Chapter 11 |
Hospital inpatient and outpatient servicesThe Congress should: Replace Medicare’s current hospital quality programs with a new hospital value incentive program (HVIP) that: includes a small set of population-based outcome, patient experience, and value measures; scores all hospitals based on the same absolute and prospectively set performance targets; accounts for differences in patients’ social risk factors by distributing payment adjustments… Read more » |
|
March 2019 |
March 2019 - Chapter 3 |
Using payment to ensure appropriate access to and use of hospital emergency department services (1)The Congress should: allow isolated rural stand-alone emergency departments (more than 35 miles from another emergency department) to bill standard outpatient prospective payment system facility fees and provide such emergency departments with annual payments to assist with fixed costs. |
|
June 2018 |
June 2018 - Chapter 2 |
Using payment to ensure appropriate access to and use of hospital emergency department services (2)The Congress should reduce Type A emergency department rates by 30 percent for off-campus stand-alone emergency departments that are within six miles of an on-campus hospital emergency department. |
|
June 2018 |
June 2018 - Chapter 2 |
Hospital inpatient and outpatient servicesFor 2019, the Congress should update the 2018 Medicare base payment rates (inpatient and outpatient) for acute care hospitals by the amount determined under current law. |
|
March 2018 |
March 2018 - Chapter 3 |
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. |
|
March 2017 |
March 2017 - Chapter 3 |