MedPAC > Recommendations

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
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	March 2000 - Chapter 3
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	March 2000 - Chapter 3
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	March 2000 - Chapter 3
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	March 2000 - Chapter 4
Continuing Reform of Medicare Payments to Physicians (A) To refine practice expense relative value units for the Medicare Fee Schedule, the Secretary of Health and Human Services should: Determine whether a clinical consensus exists about the appropriate settings in which services should be provided. For services that should not be provided in physicians’ offices, the Secretary should set both the office and facility… Read more »	Physicians and other health professionals	March 1999	March 1999 - Chapter 7
Continuing Reform of Medicare Payments to Physicians (B) To refine practice expense relative value units for the Medicare Fee Schedule, the Secretary of Health and Human Services should: Use a service-by-service approach to decide which services are subject to a site-of-service differential.	Physicians and other health professionals	March 1999	March 1999 - Chapter 7
Continuing Reform of Medicare Payments to Physicians (C) To refine practice expense relative value units for the Medicare Fee Schedule, the Secretary of Health and Human Services should: Include in the refinement process participants with expertise in payment methods, survey research, and accounting: representatives from the physician community; and payers other than Medicare.	Physicians and other health professionals	March 1999	March 1999 - Chapter 7
Continuing Reform of Medicare Payments to Physicians (D) To prepare for implementation of new professional liability insurance expense relative value units, the Secretary should: Consider the frequency of closed malpractice claims with payment, by service, as a basis for the relative value units. Such relative value units would reflect each service’s risk of a malpractice claim and would be resourced based.	Physicians and other health professionals	March 1999	March 1999 - Chapter 7
Continuing Reform of Medicare Payments to Physicians (E) To improve the sustainable growth rate system, the Congress should: Revise the sustainable growth rate to include measures of changes in the composition of Medicare fee-for-service enrollment.	Physicians and other health professionals	March 1999	March 1999 - Chapter 7
Continuing Reform of Medicare Payments to Physicians (F) To improve the sustainable growth rate system, the Congress should: Revise the sustainable growth rate to include a factor of growth in real gross domestic product per capita plus an allowance for cost increases due to improvements in medical capabilities and advancements in scientific technology.	Physicians and other health professionals	March 1999	March 1999 - Chapter 7