[Federal Register Volume 59, Number 193 (Thursday, October 6, 1994)]
[Unknown Section]
[Page 0]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 94-24803]


[[Page Unknown]]

[Federal Register: October 6, 1994]


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PHYSICIAN PAYMENT REVIEW COMMISSION
 

Commission Public Hearing

AGENCY: Physician Payment Review Commission.

ACTION: Topics for Commission Public Hearing.

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SUMMARY: The Commission will hold a public hearing on Monday, November 
21, 1994, at the Washington Marriott, 1221 22nd Street NW., Washington, 
DC in the Dupont Room. Groups may request to testify on the following 
topics from the Commission's work plan:

Health System Issues

The Emerging Market for Health Services

    Work on those topics will include documenting changes in the way 
that health care is organized, financed, and delivered; drawing out the 
implications of these changes; identifying policy options to facilitate 
desirable changes and to address problems; and assessing the likely 
effects of those options.
     Relationships between purchasers (employers; alliances) 
and health plans
     Relationships between health plans and providers:

--Section and retention of providers by health plans
--Mechanisms through which plans pay physicians

     Relationships among providers:

--Integration of medical practice within and across providers
--Network development in rural areas
--Antitrust issues for provider-directed plans

     Implications for consumers
     Implications for academic medical centers
     Role of state regulatory policies
     Efforts to ensure quality:

--State quality assurance requirements
--Managed care plans' internal quality assurance systems

     Disclosure of health plan information:

--Quality (report cards; how plans and consumers use quality 
information)
--Financial arrangements between plans and physicians

     Implications for Medicare and Medicaid:

--Potential for access problems
--Potential for adoption of private sector innovations

Structure of Insurance Markets and Potential Reforms

     Interrelationships between insurance rules, community 
rating, and risk adjustment; principles underlying insurance reform in 
the absence of universal coverage
     Issues in opening FEHBP to a broader population
     Monitoring state-level reforms

Technology Assessment and Coverage Decisions

     Consideration of costs in technology assessment and 
coverage decisions

Outcomes Research and Practice Guidelines

     Update on development and use of practice guidelines
     Analysis of issues related to research design for outcomes 
and effectiveness studies

Workforce

     Follow up on graduate medical education reform proposals

Improving Access for the Poor

     Successful models for delivering care to urban undeserved 
populations
     Development of options for addressing nonfinancial 
barriers to care

Expenditures in Medicare and the Private Sector

     Analysis of trends
     Changes in practice patterns
     Causes for slowdown in spending growth

Medicare

Medicare Cuts

     Analysis of options
     Implications for access
     Comments on the President's budget

Medicare Fee Schedule

     Five year review of relative work values
     Impact of Medicare reforms on physicians and beneficiaries 
(preview of work on access and financial liability presented in 1995 
annual report)
     Effects of changes in Medicare relative values, GPCIs, 
conversion factor updates, and other fee schedule changes on the 
pattern of paymentVolume Performance Standards
     Preparation of report on trends in Medicare expenditures 
and recommendations on setting Volume Performance Standards and 
updating the Medicare Fee Schedule conversion factors

Beneficiary Access

     Preparation of annual report on access drawing on analyses 
of Medicare claims data, the Current Beneficiary Survey, the National 
Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, and Commission surveys on beneficiary 
complaints.
     Preparation on annual report on beneficiary financial 
liability

Resource-based Practice Expense

     Analysis of upcoming results from HCFA microcosting study

Making Medicare User Friendly

     Identification of key beneficiary concerns and update of 
HCFA efforts to reduce complexity and to facilitate review and 
processing of claims

Medicare Risk Contracting

     Options for improving the AAPCC and alternative payment 
arrangements

Medicare and Other Payers

     Use of Medicare relative value scale by Medicaid, private 
insurers, and organized health plans

Medicaid

Policy Issues Surrounding Section 1115 Waivers
    Please contact Annette Hennessey or Lauren LeRoy at 202-653-7220 no 
later than Friday, October 7, 1994 if your group wishes to testify at 
the hearing. Groups will be notified by Tuesday, October 11 whether or 
not they were chosen to present testimony. If an organization is not 
selected to testify, it may submit written testimony for the hearing 
record.
    Two hundred (200) copies of your organization's testimony or 
written statement (including a one-page summary of the most important 
points in the testimony) must be submitted to the Commission's office 
no later than 5 p.m. on Tuesday, November 8, 1994. Groups submitting 
testimony later than 5 p.m. on November 8, 1994, will not be allowed to 
testify at the hearing; testimony or written statements received after 
the deadline will not be included in the hearing record.

ADDRESSES: Please note that the Commission has a new address: 2120 L 
Street, NW., Suite 200, Washington, DC 20037. The telephone number is 
the same: 202/653-7220.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTRACT: Lauren LeRoy, Deputy Director, or 
Annette Hennessey, Executive Assistant, at 202/653-7220.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Agendas for the hearing will be available on 
Friday, November 4, 1994 and will be mailed out at that time. To 
receive an agenda, please direct all requests to the receptionist at 
202/653-7220.
Paul B. Ginsburg,
Exectuvie Director.
[FR Doc. 94-24803 Filed 10-5-94; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6820-SE-M