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 |
|---|---|---|
Physician servicesThe Congress should update payments for physician services in 2007 by the projected change in input prices less the Commission’s expectation for productivity growth. |
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March 2006 |
Reviewing the work relative values of physician fee schedule services (1)The Secretary should establish a standing panel of experts to help CMS identify overvalued services and to review recommendations from the RUC. The group should include members with expertise in health economics and physician payment, as well as members with clinical expertise. The Congress and the Secretary should ensure that this panel has the resources… Read more » |
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March 2006 |
Reviewing the work relative values of physician fee schedule services (2)The Secretary, in consultation with the expert panel, should initiate the five-year review of services that have experienced substantial changes in length of stay, site of service, volume, practice expense, and other factors that may indicate changes in physician work. |
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March 2006 |
Reviewing the work relative values of physician fee schedule services (3)In consultation with the expert panel, the Secretary should identify new services likely to experience reductions in value. Those services should be referred to the RUC and reviewed in a time period as specified by the Secretary. |
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March 2006 |
Reviewing the work relative values of physician fee schedule services (4)To ensure the validity of the physician fee schedule, the Secretary should review all services periodically. |
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March 2006 |
Issues in physician payment policy (A)The Secretary should use Medicare claims data to measure fee-for-service physicians’ resource use and share results with physicians confidentially to educate them about how they compare with aggregated peer performance. The Congress should direct the Secretary to perform this function. |
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March 2005 |
Issues in physician payment policy (B)The Secretary should improve Medicare’s coding edits that detect unbundled diagnostic imaging services and reduce the technical component payment for multiple imaging services performed on contiguous body parts. |
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March 2005 |
Issues in physician payment policy (C)The Congress should direct the Secretary to set standards for physicians who bill Medicare for interpreting diagnostic imaging studies. The Secretary should select private organizations to administer the standards. |
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March 2005 |
Issues in physician payment policy (D)The Congress should direct the Secretary to set standards for all providers who bill Medicare for performing diagnostic imaging studies. The Secretary should select private organizations to administer the standards. |
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March 2005 |
Issues in physician payment policy (E)The Secretary should include nuclear medicine and PET procedures as designated health services under the Ethics in Patient Referrals Act. |
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March 2005 |