Ambulance Services: Medicare Payments Can Be Better Targeted to Trips in Less Densely Populated Rural Areas

United States. General Accounting Office.

United States. General Accounting Office.

关键词: Government accountability -- United States.;    health care;    ambulance services;    letter report;   

RP-ID  :  GAO-03-986
RP-ID  :  239816

美国|英语

来源: UNT Digital Library

【 摘 要 】

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently implemented a Medicare ambulance fee schedule in which providers are paid a base payment per trip plus a mileage payment. An adjustment is made to the mileage rate for rural trips to account for higher costs. CMS has stated that this rural adjustment may not sufficiently target providers serving sparsely populated rural areas. The Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Benefits Improvement and Protection Act of 2000 (BIPA) directed GAO to examine rural ambulance costs. GAO identified factors that affect ambulance costs per trip, examined how these factors varied across geographic areas, and analyzed whether Medicare payments account for geographic cost differences. GAO used survey data on ambulance providers and Medicare claims data."