MedPAC Report Recommends Changes to Long-Term, Acute Care Payment Overhaul

A scheduled overhaul of Medicare reimbursements to long-term acute-care hospitals would not do enough to prevent them from timing patients' discharges to garner the largest possible payments, according to a Medicare Payment Advisory Commission report released Friday. MedPAC recommended that only patients who spend at least eight days in an intensive care unit should qualify for the larger payments and that Medicare rejigger the daily payments to long-term acute-care hospitals so that reimbursements escalate gradually, removing sharp increases linked to a particular day of discharge.

• "Medicare Panel Faults Payment Fix as Too Weak" (Weaver et al., Wall Street Journal, 3/15).