Medicare Panel Mulls Call for Extra Pay for Safety Net Providers (1)

A prominent congressional advisory commission is mulling formal recommendations to increase Medicare payments in 2024 for physicians and hospitals that serve large numbers of low-income beneficiaries.

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission on Thursday presented a draft recommendation that, if adopted, would urge Congress to support a new payment system to improve the financial security of “safety net” hospitals that treat a disproportionate share of struggling Medicare patients.

The proposed recommendation would, in fiscal year 2024, begin a transition to redistribute disproportionate share hospital and uncompensated care payments through a proposed safety net index, and provide $2 billion for a safety ...