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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
Outpatient dialysis services The Congress should increase the outpatient dialysis base payment rate by the update specified in current law for calendar year 2018.	Ambulatory care settings	March 2017
Ambulatory surgical center services The Congress should eliminate the update to the payment rates for ambulatory surgical centers for calendar year 2017. The Congress should also require ambulatory surgical centers to submit cost data.	Ambulatory care settings	March 2016
Outpatient dialysis services The Congress should increase the outpatient dialysis base payment rate by the update specified in current law for calendar year 2017.	Ambulatory care settings	March 2016
Ambulatory surgical center services The Congress should eliminate the update to the payment rates for ambulatory surgical centers for calendar year 2016. The Congress should also require ambulatory surgical centers to submit cost data.	Ambulatory care settings	March 2015
Outpatient dialysis services The Congress should eliminate the update to the outpatient dialysis payment rate for calendar year 2016.	Ambulatory care settings	March 2015
Ambulatory surgical center services The Congress should eliminate the update to the payment rates for ambulatory surgical centers for calendar year 2015. The Congress should also require ambulatory surgical centers to submit cost data.	Ambulatory care settings	March 2014
Hospital inpatient and outpatient services The Congress should direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to: reduce or eliminate differences in payment rates between outpatient departments and physician offices for selected ambulatory payment classifications. set long-term care hospital base payment rates for non-chronically critically ill cases equal to those of acute care hospitals and redistribute the savings to create… Read more »	Ambulatory care settings Hospital Post-acute care	March 2014
Outpatient dialysis services (1) The Congress should not increase the outpatient dialysis payment rate for calendar year 2015.	Ambulatory care settings	March 2014
Outpatient dialysis services (2) The Congress should direct the Secretary to: * include a measure that assesses poor outcomes related to anemia in the End-Stage Renal Disease Quality Incentive Program. * redesign the low-volume payment adjustment to consider a facility’s distance to the nearest facility. * audit dialysis facilities’ cost report data.	Ambulatory care settings Quality	March 2014
Mandated report: Improving Medicare’s payment system for outpatient therapy services (1) The Congress should direct the Secretary to: reduce the certification period for the outpatient therapy plan of care from 90 days to 45 days, and develop national guidelines for therapy services, implement payment edits at the national level based on these guidelines that target implausible amounts of therapy, and use authorities granted by the Patient… Read more »	Ambulatory care settings	June 2013