The Institute of Medicine has announced that it will evaluate the accuracy of the geographic adjustment factors used by Medicare for reimbursing providers to ensure providers receive fair payments when treating Medicare patients. Over the course of the next 24 months, IOM will evaluate the impact these geographic adjustment factors, and the methodology used to calculate them, have on the distribution of the healthcare workforce, quality of care, population health, and the ability to provide efficient, high-value care. The IOM anticipates issuing two reports, the first in the spring of 2011 and the second in the spring of 2012. The committee established by IOM to evaluate Medicare's geographic adjustment factors will hold its first public session on September 16, 2010.

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