MedPAC: set Medicare doc pay updates based on pay adequacy.(Medicare Physician Payment)

Publication: Medicine & Health

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The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission wants Congress to replace the current system of automatic formula-driven annual payment updates for Medicare physicians with a new system "based on an analysis of payment adequacy." That's what MedPAC Chair Glenn Hackbarth told the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Feb. 10.

And while it still doesn't seem likely that Congress will manage a long-term fix for physician payments in this busy and increasingly contentious legislative year, many are growing frustrated with the failure of their past attempts to mend the current "sustainable growth rate" formula by tinkering.

In addition, changing to a payment-adequacy-based system would give physicians an update mechanism more similar to those Medicare uses for other provider groups, such as hospitals, and would make it easier to tie payments to quality and efficiency measures, as many lawmakers are interested in doing, Hackbarth suggested.

Furthermore, because updates wouldn't be automatic under an adequacy-based system, it would be...

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