The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) would be given the power to set the payment rates for Medicare under a bill to be introduced by Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.), according to a report in The Washington Post.
MedPAC already makes recommendations to Congress on how much Medicare should pay physicians, and has in past years used its own formula linking payments to overall growth in productivity and changes in input prices - a formula much more likely to suggest higher payments for doctors.
Current MedPAC recommendations are not binding, and Rockefeller told the Post that allowing MedPAC to set rates would take special interests out of the equation and allow Medicare to test new payment systems for doctors and hospitals.
See the full article by visiting http://voices.washingtonpost.com/health-care-reform/2009/05/rockefeller_looks_to_empower_m.html?hpid=news-col-blog.