MedPAC Devising Report On Ways To Track Opioid Use In Hospitals

Federal Medicare advisers grappled Thursday (Jan. 17) with how CMS could better track opioid use in hospitals and encourage non-opioid alternatives, and it must report to Congress on those issues by March due to a mandate in last year’s landmark opioid bill. Throughout the discussion, Medicare Payment Advisory Commission members and staff identified several obstacles to a comprehensive set of recommendations, including limited data on what hospitals pay for drugs and the amounts they prescribe, concerns about adding burdensome new...