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Advising the Congress on Medicare issues
MedPAC > Recommendations

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

Home health services (2)

The Congress should update home health payments by market basket for fiscal year 2003.
  • Post-acute care

March 2002

Home health services (3)

The Congress should eliminate the payment cut for home health services scheduled for October 2002 in current law.
  • Post-acute care

March 2002

Hospital inpatient and outpatient services (1)

The Congress should gradually eliminate the differential in inpatient payment rates between hospitals in large urban and other areas.
  • Hospital

March 2002

Hospital inpatient and outpatient services (2)

The Congress should increase the base rate for inpatient services covered by Medicare’s prospective payment system in fiscal year 2003 by market basket minus 0.55 percent for hospitals in large urban areas and by market basket for hospitals in all other areas.
  • Hospital

March 2002

Hospital inpatient and outpatient services (3)

For calendar year 2003, the Secretary should increase the payment rates for services covered by the outpatient prospective payment system by the rate of increase in the hospital market basket
  • Ambulatory care settings

March 2002

Outpatient dialysis services

For calendar year 2003, the Congress should update the composite rate payment for outpatient dialysis services by 2.4 percent.
  • Ambulatory care settings

March 2002

Paying for new technology in the outpatient prospective payment system (A)

The Congress should: * Replace hospital-specific payments for pass-through devices with national rates. * Give the Secretary authority to consider alternatives to average wholesale price when determining payments for pass-through drugs and biologicals.
  • Drugs, Devices, and Tests
  • Hospital

March 2002

Paying for new technology in the outpatient prospective payment system (B)

The Secretary should: * Ensure additional payments are made only for new or substantially improved technologies that are expensive in relation to the applicable ambulatory payment classification payment rate. * Avoid basing national rates only on reported costs. * Ensure that the same broad principles guide payments for new technologies in the inpatient and outpatient… Read more »
  • Drugs, Devices, and Tests

March 2002

Physician services (1)

The Congress should repeal the sustainable growth rate system and instead require that the Secretary update payments for physician services based on the estimated change in input prices for the coming year, less and adjustment for growth in multifactor productivity.
  • Physicians and other health professionals

March 2002

Physician services (2)

The Secretary should revise the productivity adjustment for physician services and make it a multifactor instead of labor-only adjustment.
  • Physicians and other health professionals

March 2002