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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	Appeared In
Medicare coverage of surgical technologists when functioning as first surgical assistants The Congress should not expand the list of providers eligible to bill Medicare for first assistant services to include certified surgical technologists.	Physicians and other health professionals	June 2002	June 2002 - Chapter 1
Medicare coverage of nonphysician providers of mental health services The Congress should not allow marriage and family therapists, licensed professional counselors, and pastoral counselors to bill Medicare independently for mental health services.	Physicians and other health professionals	June 2002	June 2002 - Chapter 2
Medicare payment to advanced practice nurses and physician assistants The Congress should increase Medicare payment rates for certified nurse-midwives to 85 percent of the physician fee schedule. The conversion factor for physician services should be adjusted to make this change budget neutral.	Physicians and other health professionals	June 2002	June 2002
Accounting for changes in input prices The Secretary should use the wage and benefit proxies that most closely match the training and skill requirements of health care occupations in all input price indexes used for updating payments. In determining index weights, measures specific to the health sector and to occupation categories in which health care plays a major role should be… Read more »	Physicians and other health professionals	March 2002	March 2002 - Chapter 2A
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	March 2002 - Chapter 2C
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	March 2002 - Chapter 2C
Physician services (3) The Congress should update payments for physician services by 2.5 percent in 2003.	Physicians and other health professionals	March 2002	March 2002 - Chapter 2C
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	March 2001 - Chapter 2
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	March 2001 - Chapter 2
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	June 2000 - Chapter 7

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