Dec 10 2009
The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission suggested Thursday that Congress should adjust what it pays hospitals for inpatient care in 2011 to recoup overpayments that have come from changes in documentation and coding used by Medicare, according to a report on Modern Healthcare.
At the same time, the commission, known as MedPAC, called for Medicare to increase its payment rates for inpatient and outpatient hospital services at the full rate of inflation, along with establishing a quality incentives program. Currently, the projected increase would be 2.5%, MedPAC researchers stated. But the commission suggested reduction in that to account for a lower indirect medical education payment and to recoup the overpayment. The recommendations are scheduled for a vote at MedPAC's January meeting. (Lubell, 12/10)
 This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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