American Hospital Association urges Medicare Payment Advisory Commission to increase payment rates across healthcare sectors; organization seeks market basket updates plus 1% for hospital systems

The AHA today urged the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission to update payment recommendations for hospitals, post-acute care facilities and physicians in advance of the commission's Jan. 16 public meeting. AHA urged MedPAC to issue a higher update than the current-law market basket update plus an additional 1% for the hospital inpatient and outpatient prospective payment systems.

The AHA disagreed with a draft recommendation from the commission in December that would reduce fiscal year 2026 inpatient rehabilitation facility PPS payments by 7%. Instead, the AHA urged MedPAC to support a current-law market-basket update for IRFs. The AHA made similar requests for payments to skilled nursing facilities and home health agencies.

MedPAC was also urged by the AHA to recommend a higher update to physician reimbursement that would more fully account for impacts from inflation and physician fee schedule cuts.