News: MedPAC finalizes 2020 payment recommendations
Last week, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) recommended that Congress provide a 2% market-basket update for the hospital inpatient and outpatient prospective payment systems in 2020, AHA News reported. Additionally, MedPAC recommended that Congress replace the current hospital quality programs in 2020 with a new Hospital Value Incentive Program (HVIP).
The difference would be an increase in payments between the update recommendation and the amount specified in current law. The new HVIP would:
- Include a small set of population-based outcomes, patient experience, and value measures
- Score all hospitals based on the same absolute, and prospectively set, performance targets
- Account for differences in patient’s social risk factors by distributing payment adjustments through peer groupings
The American Hospital Association (AHA) previously urged MedPAC to defer final recommendation on the HVIP due to significant concerns with the program’s design.
As drafted, “the AHA believes there is a substantial risk that the HVIP will not improve upon the existing Medicare hospital value programs and may lead to unintended consequences,” the AHA wrote in response to the initial MedPAC proposals.
It does not seem that MedPAC agreed with the AHA’s concerns as they submitted their final recommendations to Congress last week.
Editor’s note: To read AHA News’ coverage of this story, click here. To read the AHA’s feedback on the recommendations, click here.