June 2022 MedPAC Report to Congress: Medicare and the HC Delivery System

Posted in RESOURCES

Mary Madison, RN, RAC-CT, CDP 
Clinical Consultant – Briggs Healthcare

MedPAC released its June 2022 Annual Report to Congress on Wednesday, June 15, 2022.  The 3-page Press Release is found here.

The full report is found on the MedPAC website; the direct link to the 267-page report is here.

It’s always interesting to read the Commission’s cover letter to Congress, found on page 5 of this year’s report. Here are some highlights of that letter:

“This report fulfills the Commission’s legislative mandate to evaluate Medicare payment issues and make recommendations to the Congress.

In the seven chapters in this report, we consider:

• ways to streamline and harmonize Medicare’s portfolio of alternative payment models; 
• vulnerable Medicare beneficiaries’ access to care (pursuant to a formal congressional request); 
• a framework for identifying safety-net providers and evaluating whether new Medicare safety-net funding might be warranted in a given health care sector;  
• approaches for addressing high prices of drugs covered under Medicare Part B;
• an option to improve the accuracy of Medicare Advantage payments by limiting the influence of  outliers in CMS’s risk-adjustment model; 
• an approach to align fee-for-service payment rates across ambulatory settings; and  
• segmentation in the stand-alone Part D prescription drug plan market.

This report primarily focuses on Medicare’s payment policies, which I hope you find useful. At the same time, I and the rest of the Commission remain cognizant of the ongoing challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. We remain ready to assist the Congress and CMS as part of our mission to preserve beneficiaries’ access to high-quality care, control Medicare spending growth, and provide sufficient payment for efficient providers.”

There’s a little something for every Medicare provider in the MedPAC report. I’ve bolded (above) the keywords in each of the seven (7) chapters of the report.

The Executive Summary is found on pages 13 through 19.

Appendix A provides the MedPAC Commissioners’ voting on recommendations:

I encourage you to review and share this Report with your team and colleagues. It’s certainly food for thought for all stakeholders.