How Medicare regulatory penalties will change

Regulatory penalties under the current Medicare payment system have been rising, overwhelming physicians with reporting burdens just to avoid payment cuts. But how will financial penalties and bonuses change in the new system? Under the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA), regulatory penalties starting in 2019 will be much less severe, and physicians will have greater opportunity for bonuses.How MIPS will be different The current pay-for-performance programs —the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS), the value-based payment modifier (VBM) and the Meaningful Use electronic health record program—each judge physicians separately on various metrics. Under MACRA, physicians who remain in Medicare ’s fee-for-service program will participate in the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS). Though improvements to the proposed regulatory framework are needed for implementing MIPS, there is no question that the system offers improvements over current Medicare law. MIPS consolidates and better aligns the separate quality and performance measurement programs that currently affect physicians ’ payments. It adds one new component—clinical practice improvement activities—with a menu of more than 90 activities through which physicians can demonstrate high-value services and receive credit. The current system includes quality measures that overlap and sometimes conflict. For instance, a physician who did not successfully report under PQRS automatically...
Source: AMA Wire - Category: Journals (General) Authors: Source Type: news