MedPAC discusses draft Medicare payment recommendations for 2024

Partnering on Population Health. A Black female patient in a hospital bed smiles at a female clinician of color with a smile on her face who is examining the patient in a hospital room.

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission today discussed draft payment update recommendations for 2024, which the commission will vote on in January. The draft recommendations call for Congress to update Medicare payment rates for hospital inpatient and outpatient services by the current law amount plus 1%, and transition to its safety-net index policy with an additional $2 billion distributed to safety-net hospitals. They also propose that Congress:

Update 2024 Medicare payments for physicians and other health professional services by 50% of the Medicare Economic Index increase, and enact a non-budget-neutral add-on payment under the physician fee schedule to services provided to low-income Medicare beneficiaries.
Reduce 2024 payment rate for home health agencies by 7%.
Reduce 2024 payment rates for skilled nursing facilities and inpatient rehabilitation facilities by 3%.
Update the 2024 Medicare base payment rate for hospice by the amount specified in current law, and wage adjust and reduce the hospice aggregate cap by 20%.

Medicare