CMS Proposed Patient Relationship Categories for MACRA

Patient engagement and patient satisfaction have been a core principle of healthcare reform under ACA and MACRA. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released for public comment its proposed physician-patient relationship categories, a first step toward a Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) requirement that the agency establish classification code sets for such physician-patient relationships. The patient relationship categories and codes are intended to help CMS more effectively measure resource use, a major performance category under the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS). The patient relationship categories and codes also could be utilized through alternative payment models (APMs). The public comment on the draft category list is due August, 15 2016. As far as next steps, CMS has a statutory timeframe to release a list of proposed codes by November 9, 2016. Following a public comment period for the proposed codes, an operational list of groups and codes will be available by Dec. 14, 2017. See a timeline on page 7 of the announcement. By developing patient relationship categories and codes for the new MACRA quality pathways, CMS is better able to accurately hold physicians responsible for care that can be attributed to themselves. Because this is a new endeavor for CMS, the agency used five policy principles to determine the patient relationships and ensure that it is appropriately considering the role of the ph...
Source: Policy and Medicine - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs