Commissioners on the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission expressed broad support for linking annual changes to physician reimbursement to inflation, a measure which — if approved by Congress — would give U.S. doctors more financial predictability and stability.
MedPAC commissioners bandied about different solutions with one theme in common: tying physicians’ annual payment update to the Medicare Economic Index or MEI, a measure of cost inflation for physician services.
“I really agree with this notion of an MEI-based update,” said Commissioner Amol Navathe, associate director of the Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics at the Perelman School of Medicine.
“It’s hard to perfectly read the tea leaves, but I think this is striking a good balance between what we understand from the evidence and what we’re worried about from the perspective of access for beneficiaries,” Navathe said.