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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)	Publication
Medicare payment for ambulance services (2) The Congress should direct the Secretary to: promulgate national guidelines to more precisely define medical necessity requirements for both emergency and nonemergency (recurring and nonrecurring) ground ambulance transport services; develop a set of national edits based on those guidelines to be used by all claims processors; and identify geographic areas and/or ambulance suppliers and providers… Read more »	Ambulatory care settings	June 2013 - Chapter 7
Ambulatory surgical center services The Congress should eliminate the update to the payment rates for ambulatory surgical centers for calendar year 2014. The Congress should also require ambulatory surgical centers to submit cost data.	Ambulatory care settings	March 2013 - Chapter 5
Outpatient dialysis services The Congress should not increase the outpatient dialysis bundled payment rate for calendar year 2014.	Ambulatory care settings	March 2013 - Chapter 6
Ambulatory surgical center services (1) The Congress should update the payment rates for ambulatory surgical centers by 0.5 percent for calendar year 2013. The Congress should also require ambulatory surgical centers to submit cost data.	Ambulatory care settings	March 2012 - Chapter 5
Ambulatory surgical center services (2) The Congress should direct the Secretary to implement a value-based purchasing program for ambulatory surgical center services no later than 2016.	Ambulatory care settings Quality	March 2012 - Chapter 5
Outpatient dialysis services The Congress should update the outpatient dialysis payment rate by 1 percent for calendar year 2013.	Ambulatory care settings	March 2012 - Chapter 6
Ambulatory surgical centers The Congress should implement a 0.5 percent increase in payment rates for ambulatory surgical center services in calendar year 2012 concurrent with requiring ambulatory surgical centers to submit cost and quality data.	Ambulatory care settings	March 2011 - Chapter 5
Outpatient dialysis services The Congress should update the outpatient dialysis payment rate by 1 percent for calendar year 2012.	Ambulatory care settings	March 2011 - Chapter 6
Ambulatory surgical centers The Congress should implement a 0.6 percent increase in payment rates for ambulatory surgical center services in calendar year 2011 concurrent with requiring ambulatory surgical centers to submit cost and quality data	Ambulatory care settings	March 2010 - Chapter 2C
Outpatient dialysis services The Congress should update the composite rate by the projected rate of increase in the end-stage renal disease market basket less the adjustment for productivity growth for calendar year 2011.	Ambulatory care settings	March 2010 - Chapter 2D

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