The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission meets this Thursday and Friday in Washington, D.C.

MedPAC’s December agenda is dominated by Medicare payment issues:  how much Medicare should pay for different types of services in calendar year 2021 and FY 2021.  The services to be addressed during the December 5-6 meetings are physician and other health professional services, ambulatory surgical center services, hospital inpatient and outpatient services, skilling nursing facility services, home health services, inpatient rehabilitation facility services, long-term care hospital services, outpatient dialysis services, and hospice services.

In addition, MedPAC commissioners will discuss their mandated report on expanding Medicare’s post-acute care transfer policy to hospice and hear a status report on the Medicare Advantage program.

MedPAC is an independent congressional agency that advises Congress on issues involving the Medicare program.  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.  Those recommendations, in turn, can have a major impact on the nation’s private safety-net hospitals.

Learn more here.