The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission met to discuss potential Medicare policy responses to increasing consolidation and integration in the healthcare industry, according to AHA News.
Commissioners covered a variety of topics, including site-neutral payment options and ways to make it easier for providers to participate in ACOs. Other topics included options for assessing the growth of stand-alone emergency centers, potential changes to Medicare outlier payments, potential methods for determining benchmarks and beneficiary premiums under a Medicare premium support system, according to the article.
The commission also discussed ways to modify the Open Payments program to require reporting of payments to advanced practice nurses, physician assistants and patient advocacy organizations, according to the article. Open Payments is a federal program established under the ACA to collect information about the payments drug and device companies make to physicians and teaching hospitals for things like travel, research, gifts, speaking fees and meals.