Dive Brief:
- The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) this week announced the release of its March 2016 report to Congress on Medicare payment policy.
- The report provides analyses of payment adequacy in fee-for-service (FFS) Medicare as well as a review of Medicare Advantage (MA) and the prescription drug benefit, Part D.
- MedPAC officially advises Congress on Medicare issues and notes it is legally required to provide advice on the program’s payment policies.
Dive Insight:
Among MedPAC's recommendations around Medicare are that payments to acute care hospitals should be increased in 2017 by 1.75%, the amount specified in current law, and there should be a payment increase of 0.5% to physicians and other health professionals, which was called for in the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015, as Becker's Hospital Review notes.
Recommendations for Medicare Advantage included eliminating the cap that currently exists on benchmark amounts in particular counties, as well as eliminating the adjustment to county benchmarks that doubles quality increases in particular counties, in order "to make the benchmarks simpler and more equitable, while leaving overall payments at roughly the same level."
MedPAC also recommended reducing the price Medicare pays for separately payable Part B drugs by 10% of the average sales price, because it does not currently adjust its payment rates for the lower drug acquisition cost at 340B hospitals. Doing so would save $300 million that MedPAC recommends be redirected to the Medicare-financed uncompensated care pool.