Medicare payment adjustments -- focus of new IOM report releasing June 1

The Medicare program adjusts its baseline payments to hospitals and individual health care practitioners based on regional variations in expenses beyond providers' control, such as rents, wages, and liability premiums. The goal is to ensure that payments are accurate and fair, but many providers and policymakers have expressed doubts about the accuracy of these adjustments. Geographic Adjustment in Medicare Payments, a new report from the Institute of Medicine, assesses the methodology and data sources used to calculate payment adjustments and recommends ways to improve their accuracy. The report is the first of three examining Medicare's geographic adjustment factors.

The report will be released at a one-hour public briefing starting at 1 p.m. EDT Wednesday, June 1, in the Murrow-White-Lisagor Rooms of the National Press Club, 529 14th St., N.W., Washington, D.C. Those who cannot attend may participate through a live video webcast at www.nationalacademies.org. Advance copies of the report will be available to reporters only beginning at 9 a.m. EDT Tuesday, May 31. The report is embargoed and not for public release before 1 p.m. EDT Wednesday, June 1. Reporters can obtain a copy and arrange interviews with members of the authoring committee by contacting the National Academies' Office of News and Public Information; tel. 202-334-2138 or e-mail news@nas.edu.

Provided by National Academy of Sciences