The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission held public meetings on September 1 and 2. Among the subjects discussed during the meeting were:
- Reforming Medicare’s wage index system – “the commission remains concerned about Medicare’s current wage index policies, including the system’s inaccuracy, the circularity of hospital-reported data, the large volume of permitted exceptions, and administrative complexity and MedPAC commissioners discussed an alternative wage index methodology.”
- Context for Medicare payment policy – an annual discussion.
- Standardizing benefits in Medicare Advantage plans – cost sharing for Part A and Part B services
- Medicare Advantage encounter data – “MedPAC has been concerned about the accuracy of the encounter data Medicare Advantage plans submit because this data is used to calculate plans’ enrollee risk scores.”
- Addressing high prices of drugs covered under Medicare Part B – “in its report to Congress earlier this year MedPAC described alternative approaches for Medicare to address high prices for new Part B drugs, lack of price competition for drugs with similar health effects, and financial incentives associated with the percentage add-on to Medicare Part B payment rates.”
Go here to learn more about the issues MedPAC addressed and to find the presentations that were the basis of its discussions.