At its meeting in Washington, D.C., in early December, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) focused in large part on its upcoming recommendations to Congress regarding provider payment updates. At its January 2008 meeting, MedPAC will finalize those recommendations for the different payment systems based on fiscal and calendar years 2009, which will be submitted to Congress in the commission’s March 2008 report.
The draft recommendations are the same as those formulated last year, including:
- Congress should increase payment rates for the acute inpatient and outpatient prospective payment systems by the projected rate of increase in the hospital market basket index.
- Congress should update payments for physician services by the projected change in input prices less the commission’s expectation for productivity growth.
- Congress should eliminate the update to payment rates for home health care, skilled nursing facility, and long-term care hospital services.
- Congress should update payment rates for inpatient rehabilitation facility services by 1 percent.
Download the December meeting transcript.
