How new Medicare payment system intends to help small practices

Draft regulations released last month outline sweeping changes to the Medicare payment system, and one of those eagerly anticipated changes is the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) stated intent to ease physicians’ administrative burdens—including for those in small or rural practices. A new fact sheet outlines flexibilities the agency is proposing for physicians in the new payment system. Responding to physician feedback The proposed rule for implementing key provisions of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) has drawn concerns regarding its regulatory impact analysis, which projected that the quality and resource use components of the new Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) would have a negative impact on most solo physicians and small practices. CMS has clarified in its new small practices fact sheet that the projections made in the analysis were “based on 2014 data when many small and solo practice physicians did not report their performance. It also does not reflect the accommodations in the proposed rule that are intended to provide additional flexibility to small practices.” In particular, the impact analysis table in the proposed rule only offers a partial picture of physicians’ potential success in MIPS because it fails to include participation in the categories of “clinical practice improvement” and “advancing care information”—formerly the electronic health record meaningful use program. Anot...
Source: AMA Wire - Category: Journals (General) Authors: Source Type: news