Updating and reforming prospective payment for hospital inpatient care (A)

For the annual update to hospital inpatient payments under Medicare’s prospective payment system: The operating update of market basket minus 1.8 percentage points set in law for fiscal year 2000 will provide reasonable payment rates. An update of that level, which will be 0.7 percent if the current market basket estimate holds, is within the range the Commission believes is appropriate.