SGR Fix The Final Deal?

On Thursday, February 6th, a bipartisan group of congressional lawmakers announced they had reached a deal on legislation to repeal Medicare's widely criticized sustainable growth rate formula, replacing volume-based payments with measures that reward care efficiency and quality. The legislation is described below, but stakeholders should be cautious about its prospects given the remaining political hurdles it faces. SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act The bill, the SGR Repeal and Medicare Provider Payment Modernization Act, was jointly announced by the chairmen and ranking minority members of the Senate Finance Committee, House Ways and Means Committee, and House Energy and Commerce Committee. It would repeal the SGR formula and institute a 0.5% annual payment increase for physicians between 2014 and 2018. This increase would be maintained until 2018 in an effort to offer payment stability and help doctors transition to new care models. A thorough summary of the bill's sections can be found here. Physicians beginning in 2018 would participate in a new merit-based incentive payment system -- called MIPS -- that would consolidate three existing incentive programs: (1) The Physician Quality Reporting System; (2) The Value-Based Payment Modifier; and (3) Meaningful use of electronic health records. As reported, MIPS would apply to: (1) Chiropractors; (2) Certified registered nurse anesthetists; (3) Clinical nurse specialists; (4) Dental surgery or de...
Source: Policy and Medicine - Category: Health Medicine and Bioethics Commentators Authors: Source Type: blogs