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Commission Recommendations

MedPAC makes recommendations to the Congress and to the Secretary of Health and Human Services on issues affecting the administration of the Medicare program. With its recommendations, the Commission strives to improve the delivery of care, while ensuring financial stability and maximizing value for the program. After extensive analysis and evaluation, our recommendations are discussed and voted on by Commissioners in our public meetings. Recommendations are typically published in two main reports, released in March and June of each year.

Recommendations	Topic(s)	Date
Hospital inpatient and outpatient services For 2019, the Congress should update the 2018 Medicare base payment rates (inpatient and outpatient) for acute care hospitals by the amount determined under current law.	Hospital	March 2018
Inpatient rehabilitation facility services The Congress should reduce the fiscal year 2019 Medicare payment rate for inpatient rehabilitation facilities by 5 percent. Additionally, the Commission reiterates its March 2016 recommendations on the inpatient rehabilitation facility prospective payment system.	Post-acute care	March 2018
Long-term care hospital services The Secretary should eliminate the fiscal year 2019 Medicare payment update for long-term care hospitals.	Post-acute care	March 2018
Mandated report: Telehealth services and the Medicare program Vote to forward telehealth report to Congress.	Delivery system reforms	March 2018
Moving beyond the Merit-based Incentive Payment System The Congress should: eliminate the current Merit-based Incentive Payment System; and establish a new voluntary value program in fee-for-service Medicare in which: clinicians can elect to be measured as part of a voluntary group; and clinicians in voluntary groups can qualify for a value payment based on their group’s performance on a set of population-based… Read more »	Delivery system reforms Physicians and other health professionals	March 2018
Outpatient dialysis services For 2019, the Congress should update the calendar year 2018 Medicare end-stage renal disease prospective payment system base rate by the amount determined under current law.	Ambulatory care settings	March 2018
Physician and other health professional services For calendar year 2019, the Congress should increase the calendar year 2018 payment rates for physician and other health professional services by the amount specified in current law.	Physicians and other health professionals	March 2018
Post-acute care: Increasing the equity of Medicare’s payments within each setting The Congress should direct the Secretary to begin to base Medicare payments to post-acute care (PAC) providers on a blend of each sector’s setting-specific relative weights and the unified PAC prospective payment system’s relative weights in fiscal year 2019.	Delivery system reforms Post-acute care	March 2018
Skilled nursing facility services The Congress should: eliminate the market basket update for skilled nursing facilities for fiscal years 2019 and 2020; direct the Secretary to implement a redesigned prospective payment system (PPS) in fiscal year 2019 for skilled nursing facilities; and direct the Secretary to report to the Congress on the impacts of the revised PPS and make… Read more »	Delivery system reforms Post-acute care	March 2018
The Medicare Advantage program: Status report (1) For Medicare Advantage contract consolidations involving different geographic areas, the Secretary should: for any consolidations effective on or after January 1, 2018, require companies to report quality measures using the geographic reporting units and definitions as they existed prior to consolidation, and determine star ratings as though the consolidations had not occurred, and maintain the… Read more »	Part C (Medicare Advantage) Quality	March 2018