Over the past year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) updated more than 20 prospective payment schedules, and Congress passed a number of laws that impacted the Medicare program for plan year 2025. In a new insight, Health Care Policy Analyst John Walker walks through six of these less-discussed modifications and what they mean for the Medicare program.

Key points:

• While lawmakers and regulators have typically avoided program changes to Medicare that could negatively impact beneficiary care and access, they have made significant modifications to its administrative systems over the last year.
• Among these modifications are those to Medicare’s payment programs, incentive systems, coding methodology, and cost sharing.
• These updates may have underappreciated impacts on the program and should continue to be analyzed.

Read the analysis.