MedPAC Announces Draft Recommendation to Increase Medicare Physician Payments in 2025
At the December 2023 meeting of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC), the staff and commissioners discussed potential recommendations for Medicare’s payment programs in 2025, including the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule
The draft recommendation for 2025 payments discussed by the Commissioners would be to increase the 2024 Medicare base payment rate by the amount specified in current law (which is currently 0%) plus half of the projected increase in the Medicare Economic Index (MEI) which is a measure of inflation for practice expense costs. This would result in a roughly 1.3% increase to payments in 2025.
In addition to this general payment update provision, MedPAC is also considering recommending to Congress a Medicare add-on payment for services provided to low-income beneficiaries, which would be set at 5% for non-primary care physicians and 15% for primary care physicians. This would be similar to the Commission’s recommendation for 2024.
MedPAC is set to vote on these recommendations at its next meeting to be held January 11th and 12th. Recommendations that pass during that vote will be included in MedPAC’s March 2024 Report to Congress.