MedPAC discusses draft post-acute care payment updates for 2021

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission late yesterday discussed draft 2021 payment recommendations for Congress that would, relative to 2020 rates, increase Medicare payments for long-term care hospitals by 2.0%, decrease payments for inpatient rehabilitation facilities by 5.0%, decrease home health payments by 7% and leave skilled nursing facility payments unchanged. In discussing the draft payment recommendations for post-acute care providers, the commissioners considered factors such as each sector’s Medicare fee-for-service margin. The commissioners also discussed draft recommendations to conduct IRF medical record audits on unusual patterns of case-mix and coding, and expand the IRF outlier pool to “redistribute payments more equitably across cases and providers.”