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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
Physician services (1) The Congress should repeal the sustainable growth rate system and instead require that the Secretary update payments for physician services based on the estimated change in input prices for the coming year, less and adjustment for growth in multifactor productivity.	Physicians and other health professionals	March 2002
Physician services (2) The Secretary should revise the productivity adjustment for physician services and make it a multifactor instead of labor-only adjustment.	Physicians and other health professionals	March 2002
Physician services (3) The Congress should update payments for physician services by 2.5 percent in 2003.	Physicians and other health professionals	March 2002
Updating payments for physician services and for care provided in hospital outpatient departments (A) The Congress should replace the sustainable growth rate system with an annual update based on factors influencing the unit costs of efficiently providing physician services.	Physicians and other health professionals	March 2001
Updating payments for physician services and for care provided in hospital outpatient departments (B) In implementing the update for physician services, the Congress should require the Health Care Financing Administration to use a forecast of the change in input prices.	Physicians and other health professionals	March 2001
Reviewing the estimated payment update for physician services When preparing the final 2001 update to the physician fee schedule’s conversion factor, the Secretary should review the data and methods used to project growth in enrollment in traditional Medicare and explain the methods used to project that growth.	Physicians and other health professionals	June 2000
Revising payment methods and monitoring quality of care in traditional Medicare (N) HCFA should continue to work with the medical community in developing guidelines for evaluation and management services, minimizing their complexity, and exploring alternative approaches to promote accurate coding of these services.	Physicians and other health professionals	March 2000
Revising payment methods and monitoring quality of care in traditional Medicare (O) HCFA should pilot-test documentation guidelines for evaluation and management services before their implementation, and/or pilot test any alternative method. The agency should continue to work with the medical community in developing the pilot tests, and should ensure adequate time for physician education.	Physicians and other health professionals	March 2000
Revising payment methods and monitoring quality of care in traditional Medicare (P) HCFA should disclose coding edits to physicians and should seek review of the appropriateness of those edits by the medical community.	Physicians and other health professionals	March 2000
Updating payment rates in traditional Medicare The Congress should not establish a single overall expenditure target that determines payment updates for physicians’ services and ambulatory care facilities. Within existing statutory authority, the Secretary should not establish setting-specific expenditure targets.	Ambulatory care settings Physicians and other health professionals	March 2000