MedPAC Votes To Recommend Comparison Of Health Care Services
April 19, 2007 – 11:14 am | posted in Public HealthThe Medicare Payment Advisory Commission on Thursday voted to include a recommendation in a June report to Congress that lawmakers “charge an independent entity to sponsor credible research on comparative effectiveness of health care services and disseminate this information to patients, providers and public and private payers,” CQ HealthBeat reports. MedPAC twice annually issues a report to Congress on recommended revisions to Medicare reimbursement policy. In addition, MedPAC voted to include a recommendation that lawmakers implement a new method to calculate reimbursements to hospitals for labor costs. The new method, which would reduce the geographic variations in the wage index used by Medicare, would use data submitted from “all employers and industry-specific occupational weights,” rather than data submitted by hospitals. Medicare would implement the new method, which would calculate wage index values by county, over time to ensure “large changes in wage index values are phased in over a transition period.” MedPAC recommended the use of the new method to calculate reimbursements to skilled nursing facilities and home health agencies for labor costs and the review of the method by the HHS secretary for use in other Medicare payment systems. Rx Drug Recommendation
MedPAC also voted to include a recommendation that lawmakers seek to reduce confusion about whether certain medications are covered by Part D or Part B of Medicare, a problem that can delay access for beneficiaries. Under the recommendation, lawmakers should encourage Medicare to “identify certain overlap drugs and direct plans to always cover them under Part D” and should allow prescription drug plans to cover a “transitional supply” of such medications under certain conditions until a final decision is made about whether they are covered under Part D or Part B. Lawmakers also “should permit coverage for appropriate preventive vaccines under Part B instead of Part D” (Reichard, CQ HealthBeat, 4/13).
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