March 2005 MedPAC Report to Congress

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission’s March 2005 Report to Congress: Medicare Payment Policy fulfills MedPAC’s legislative mandate to evaluate Medicare pyament issues and make specific recommendations to the Congress. The report first provides context for the chapters that follow by documenting the rise in Medicare spending as a share of the economy and the federal budget. The report then assesses payment adequacy and provieds the Commitssion’s update recommendations on six payment systems in traditional Medicare. It provides additional recommendations on measuring physicians’ resource use, managing the use of imagin, incorporating pay for performance in Medicare, and encouraging the diffusion of clinical information technology in health care.