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 |
|---|---|---|
Inpatient rehabilitation facility servicesFor fiscal year 2025, the Congress should reduce the 2024 Medicare base payment rate for inpatient rehabilitation facilities by 5 percent. |
|
March 2024 |
Home health care servicesFor calendar year 2025, the Congress should reduce the 2024 Medicare base payment rates for home health agencies by 7 percent. |
|
March 2024 |
Skilled nursing facility servicesFor fiscal year 2025, the Congress should reduce the 2024 Medicare base payment rates for skilled nursing facilities by 3 percent. |
|
March 2024 |
Outpatient dialysis servicesFor calendar year 2025, the Congress should update the 2024 Medicare end-stage renal disease prospective payment system base rate by the amount determined under current law. |
|
March 2024 |
Physician and other health professional servicesThe Congress should: |
|
March 2024 |
Hospital inpatient and outpatient servicesFor fiscal year 2025, the Congress should update the 2024 Medicare base payment rates for general acute care hospitals by the amount specified in current law plus 1.5 percent. In addition, the Congress should: |
|
March 2024 |
Mandated report: Evaluation of a prototype design for a post-acute care prospective payment systemThe Commission forwards to the Congress the report on a unified post-acute care payment system mandated by the Improving Medicare Post-Acute Care Transformation Act of 2014. |
|
June 2023 |
Reforming Medicare’s wage index systemsThe Congress should repeal the existing Medicare wage index statutes, including current exceptions, and require the Secretary to phase in new Medicare wage index systems for hospitals and other types of providers that: |
|
June 2023 |
Aligning fee-for-service payment rates across ambulatory settingsThe Congress should more closely align payment rates across ambulatory settings for selected services that are safe and appropriate to provide in all settings and when doing so does not pose a risk to access. |
|
June 2023 |
Addressing high prices of drugs covered under Medicare Part B (3)The Congress should require the Secretary to: |
|
June 2023 |