MedPAC Recommends Payment Changes for 2011
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) has made two hospital payment recommendations to Congress. The first recommendation is that Congress increase payment rates for the acute inpatient and outpatient prospective payment systems in 2011 by the projected rate of increase in the hospital market basket index concurrent with implementation of a quality incentive payment program.
The second recommendation is that, in order to restore budget neutrality, Congress requires the Secretary to fully offset increases in inpatient payments due to hospital’s documentation and coding improvements. To accomplish this, the Secretary must reduce payment rates for the inpatient prospective payment system by the same percentage each year in 2011, 2012, 2013.
Also, MedPAC recommended that Congress give physicians a 1% payment update in FY 2011.
More information is available at http://www.medpac.gov/