Permanently Adopting Increase in Primary Care Payments Could Save Medicare Billions

摘要

Extending a temporary provision in the health care reform law that increases payment for primary care services could save Medicare billions of dollars, according to a study published by the Commonwealth Fund and conducted by researchers at the Center for Studying Health System Change and Mathematica Policy Research. The five-year, 10 percent payment boost for evaluation and management services in ambulatory settings could reduce total Medicare spending by approximately 2 percent per year if adopted permanently. The 10 percent increase would increase primary care visits by 8.8 percent in the long term and raise the overall cost of primary care visits by 17 percent. However, these increases would lead to considerably lower Medicare costs for other services, such as inpatient and postacute care. The temporary payment increase outlined in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act began in 2011 and is set to expire in 2015. For more information, visit http://www.aafp.orgews-now/government-medicine/20120328permpayboost.html.