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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
Inpatient rehabilitation facility services For 2020, the Congress should reduce the fiscal year 2019 Medicare base 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 2019
Long-term care hospital services For 2020, the Secretary should increase the fiscal year 2019 Medicare base payment rates for long-term care hospitals by 2 percent.	Post-acute care	March 2019
Skilled nursing facility services (1) The Congress should proceed to revise the skilled nursing facility prospective payment system in fiscal year 2020 and should annually recalibrate the relative weights of the case-mix groups to maintain alignment of payments and costs.	Post-acute care	March 2019
Skilled nursing facility services (2) The Congress should eliminate the fiscal year 2020 update to the Medicare base payment rates for skilled nursing facilities.	Post-acute care	March 2019
Home health care services The Congress should reduce Medicare payments to home health agencies by 5 percent in calendar year (CY) 2019 and implement a two-year rebasing of the payment system beginning in CY 2020. The Congress should direct the Secretary to revise the prospective payment system to eliminate the use of therapy visits as a factor in payment… Read more »	Delivery system reforms Post-acute care	March 2018
Hospice services The Congress should eliminate the fiscal year 2019 update to the Medicare payment rates for hospice services.	Post-acute care	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
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