Medicare. Performance-based and geographic adjustments to physician payments : testimony before the Subcommittee on Health, Committee on Energy and Commerce, House of Representatives Performance-based and geographic adjustments to physician payments : testimony before the Subcommittee on Health, Committee on Energy and Commerce, House of Representatives Access to Primary Care -- statistics & numerical data Government Regulation Health Inequities Health Promotion -- economics Medicare Primary Prevention Why GAO did this study. With Medicare enrollment and spending projected to increase, controlling program spending remains a serious long-term financial challenge. Physicians and other providers play a central role in the growth of Medicare expenditures both through the services they provide and the services they order such as diagnostic tests and referrals. In 2021, Medicare payments to approximately 1.3 million physicians and other providers were about $93 billion. This represented about 18 percent of all traditional Medicare expenditures. For decades, Congress and CMS have worked to refine the Medicare physician fee schedule to incentivize high-quality, efficient care. For example, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 authorized the Quality Payment Program. This statement summarizes GAO’s previously issued reports on (1) the Quality Payment Program and the two tracks it established to incentivize Medicare providers, and (2) geographic adjustments to physician payments. This statement is based on GAO's October 2021 report on the MIPS, its November 2021 report on the Advanced APMs, and its February 2022 report on geographic adjustments to physician payments. Details on the objectives, scope, and methodology of this work can be found in each issued report. Washington, DC : United States Government Accountability Office, October 19, 2023 United States. Government Accountability Office, issuing body. United States. Congress. House. Committee on Energy and Commerce. Subcommittee on Health, addressee. Technical Report Text Illustrations 1 online resource (1 PDF file (16 pages)) nlm:nlmuid-9918734185406676-pdf 9918734185406676 http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/9918734185406676 English United States The National Library of Medicine believes this item to be in the public domain. https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0