Congress should raise Medicare payment rates for ambulatory surgery center services by 0.6% in 2011 and should require ASCs to begin reporting cost and quality data to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services at that time, recommends the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission.
In a set of new recommendations voted on this month, MedPAC also advises Congress to raise rates for hospitals' acute inpatient and outpatient prospective payment systems according to the projected rise in the hospital market basket index. Those changes, recommended for 2011, should be "concurrent with implementation of a quality incentive payment program" for hospitals, MedPAC says.
Irene Tsikitas
