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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
Home health care services The Congress should direct the Secretary to reduce payments to home health agencies with relatively high risk-adjusted rates of hospital readmission.	Post-acute care Quality	March 2014
Hospice services The Congress should eliminate the update to the hospice payment rates for fiscal year 2015.	Post-acute care	March 2014
Hospital inpatient and outpatient services The Congress should direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to: reduce or eliminate differences in payment rates between outpatient departments and physician offices for selected ambulatory payment classifications. set long-term care hospital base payment rates for non-chronically critically ill cases equal to those of acute care hospitals and redistribute the savings to create… Read more »	Ambulatory care settings Hospital Post-acute care	March 2014
Inpatient rehabilitation facility services The Congress should eliminate the update to the Medicare payment rates for inpatient rehabilitation facilities in fiscal year 2015.	Post-acute care	March 2014
Long-term care hospital services The Secretary should eliminate the update to the payment rates for long-term care hospitals for fiscal year 2015.	Post-acute care	March 2014
Post-acute care providers: Steps toward broad payment reforms The Congress should direct the Secretary to implement common patient assessment items for use in home health agencies, skilled nursing facilities, inpatient rehabilitation facilities, and long-term care hospitals by 2016.	Post-acute care	March 2014
Hospice services The Congress should eliminate the update to the hospice payment rates for fiscal year 2014.	Post-acute care	March 2013
Inpatient rehabilitation facility services The Congress should eliminate the update to the Medicare payment rates for inpatient rehabilitation facilities in fiscal year 2014.	Post-acute care	March 2013
Long-term care hospital services The Secretary should eliminate the update to the payment rates for long-term care hospitals for fiscal year 2014.	Post-acute care	March 2013
Home health care services The Commission reiterates its March 2011 recommendations on improving the home health payment system.	Post-acute care	March 2012