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Medicare Physician Payment: Geographic Adjusters Appropriate But Could Be Improved With New Data

HRD-93-93 Published: Jul 20, 1993. Publicly Released: Jul 20, 1993.
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Highlights

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO assessed whether the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) used the best available data when setting the geographic adjusters for the Medicare program.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Health and Human Services The Secretary of Health and Human Services should direct the Administrator, HCFA, to complete work with IRS to test whether IRS data provide a superior basis for setting or updating the geographic adjusters. If IRS data prove superior to the data currently in use, the Secretary should direct the Administrator to obtain and use these data.
Closed – Implemented
The Department of Health and Human Services obtained IRS data and evaluated them for their suitability for establishing geographic adjusters. The evaluation did not find the IRS data to be superior to other available data.

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Tax Policy and Administration
Health care costsHealth care programsMedical feesMedical services ratesMedicarePhysiciansStatistical dataStatistical methodsCensusTax returns