MedPAC makes payment recommendations
This article was originally published in The Gray Sheet
Executive Summary
Medicare Payment Advisory Commission earlier this month recommended several changes to Medicare payments. Included is a 2011 increase in acute inpatient and outpatient prospective payment systems by the projected rate of increase in the hospital market basket index; a quality incentive payment program would be implemented at the same time. MedPAC also suggests Congress require CMS to offset hospital increases resulting from recent coding improvements by reducing payment rates up to 2% each year in 2011, 2012 and 2013, or until past overpayments from the coding changes are fully recovered. MedPAC also recommends a 1% physician payment update in 2011, as well as a 0.6% increase the same year for ambulatory surgical centers that submit cost and quality data