The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) and the Medicaid and CHIP Payment Advisory Commission (MACPAC) submit annual reports to Congress with analyses and recommendations from Commissioners on Medicare and Medicaid, respectively. In their March report, MedPAC highlights Medicare and total operating margins for rural and urban hospitals and recommends a new Medicare Safety Net Index to identify safety net hospitals and direct payments to them. MACPAC examines Medicaid’s Disproportionate Share of Hospital (DSH) payments to rural and urban hospitals.
