MedPAC issues March report to Congress

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission today released its March report to Congress. The report details the fee-for-service payment recommendations for 2021 approved by the commission in January, including recommendations for hospital services and post-acute care. For hospital inpatient and outpatient prospective payment systems, MedPAC recommended that Congress provide a 2% market-basket update in 2021, using the difference between the update and amount specified in current law to increase hospital payments through its proposed Hospital Value Incentive Program. As expected, the report also includes a staff analysis of the relationship between the 340B drug savings program and oncology drug costs, requested by the House Energy and Commerce Committee in 2018. The findings were inconclusive overall, showing higher spending for some cancer drugs but not others, and not generalizable to other conditions. For more information, see the MedPAC factsheet.