MACRA Timing Raises Concerns

CMS IS DEVELOPING WAYS TO INFORMALLY PARTNER WITH SPECIALTY SOCIETIES AND EHR VENDORS TO INCREASE ITS TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE TO PHYSICIANS IN PREPARATION FOR THE COMING QUALITY MEASUREMENT SYSTEM.

May 23—Notifying all physicians treating Medicare patients of the new payment provisions that begin next year will be a “huge lift,” according to a senior Medicare official. And that is just one of the timing issues that worry policy makers and observers regarding the Medicare payment overhaul.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has proposed rules to implement the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA), which replaces Medicare’s current physician payment methodology. The new rules split Medicare physicians into two payment systems: one for those participating in qualified alternative payment models (APMs), the other a quality-measurement system called the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS).

Most physicians are expected to be paid in the initial years under MIPS, which begins tracking physician quality metrics at the start of 2017. Letting physicians know about that looming change is taking a lot of focus by CMS.

“That’s a huge lift and something we’re spending a lot of time on now at CMS,” Kate Goodrich, director of CMS’s Center for Clinical Standards and Quality, said May 20 during a MACRA discussion for congressional staff. “For the next several months and beyond that we need to spend a lot of effort educating, educating, educating and helping clinicians to know about the program and be able to participate—at least in MIPS—in 2017.”

The agency already has reached out to 30,000 clinicians, according to weekend tweets from CMS Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt, and it planned to hold 35 MACRA education events in May.

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