Physician voice shapes Medicare pay reform final rule

An AMA Viewpoints post by AMA President Andrew W. Gurman, MD
With the issuance of its final rule on the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has created a new Medicare payment system called the Quality Payment Program (QPP).
CMS issued itsfinal rule last week and our initial review shows Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt was true to his comments, first made in January, thatCMS would be listening to physicians as development progressed. I would like to thank him for being a sincere partner during the process.
Throughcomment letters and conversations with CMS, the AMA recommended many changes that would create a more flexible transition to the updated Medicare program, and CMS has adopted a majority of those recommendations in its final rule.
There is still work to be done to improve the QPP, but it appears that we are off to a strong start. CMS ’ revisions will allow for a reasonably paced progression into the program so that physician practices can learn and adjust over time.
The key elements of the proposed rule that CMS changed based on our recommendations are:A transition period and avoiding the QPP penalty. The proposed rule stated that physicians would have to successfully report in all four Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) categories to avoid a negative payment adjustment. The AMA advocated for a transition year with lower reporting burdens. In the final rule, the only physicians who will ...

Source: AMA Wire - October 20, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Troy Parks Source Type: news