MedPAC Releases March 2026 Report to Congress on Medicare Payment Policy 

The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) released its March 2026 Report to Congress  (PDF), evaluating payment adequacy and issuing payment recommendations across seven Medicare fee-for-service payment systems, including hospital and physician payments. For hospital inpatient and outpatient services, MedPAC recommended that Congress increase hospital inpatient and outpatient services by the statutorily required update for 2027. The commission also recommended that Congress transition to redistributing disproportionate share hospital and uncompensated care payments as an add-on payment to both inpatient and outpatient payments using the Medicare Safety-Net Index (MSNI) as described in the commission’s March 2023 report and add $1 billion to the MSNI pool [refer to Washington Highlights, Jan. 13, 2023]. This recommendation is a departure from prior years, where the commission included an additional adjustment to the statutorily required update and a larger MSNI pool in their recommendation. 

For physicians and other professional health services, commissioners recommended that Congress increase payment rates by 0.5% more than the .75% for qualified participants (QPs) and .25% for non-QPs under current law. Commissioners noted that this increase will help address the growing cost of care, improving access for Medicare beneficiaries while limiting the growth of beneficiary cost-sharing.   

The report also included three status report chapters and two mandated report chapters covering Ambulatory surgical center services, Medicare Advantage, Part D Plans, the impact of recent changes on Home Health payment, and dual-eligible special needs plans.