The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission met in Washington, D.C. last week to discuss various Medicare payment issues.
Among the issues discussed at MedPAC’s April meeting were:
- Medicare skilled nursing facility value-based purchased program.
- Medicare alternative payment models (APMs).
- Medicare Advantage benchmark policy.
- Medicare indirect medical education (Medicare IME) payments.
- Medicare vaccine coverage and payments.
- Medicare payment for prescription drugs prescribed on an outpatient basis.
- Private equity and Medicare.
- Medicare clinical laboratory fee schedule.
MedPAC is an independent congressional agency that advises Congress on issues involving Medicare. While its recommendations are not binding on either Congress or the administration, MedPAC is highly influential in governing circles and its recommendations often find their way into legislation, regulations, and new public policy. Because so many patients of private safety-net hospitals are insured by Medicare, MedPAC’s deliberations are especially important to those hospitals.
Go here for links to the policy briefs and presentations that supported MedPAC’s discussion of these issues.
