RAND Releases Study on MACRA Implementation

According to a RAND study in Health Affairs, MACRA will slow the rate of growth for the program's spending on physician services, saving anywhere from $35 billion to $106 billion over 15 years. Over this time, the relative drop in revenue under MACRA is still better than what could have transpired under Medicare's former reimbursement system. With plenty of uncertainty surrounding MACRA's implementation, the RAND forecast is useful, but due to potential changes in MACRA, the study’s results may need to be revisited in the future. Study Findings Two important findings from the study: First, Medicare spending on physician services will be lower under MACRA. The RAND team estimates a drop somewhere between $35 billion and $106 billion. However, second, there is a wide range of possibilities when it comes to hospital payment changes. They could see an increase of $32 billion or a decrease of $250 billion. Peter Hussey, a senior policy researcher with the RAND Corporation and a coauthor of the study, said the losses will result from physicians responding to payment models in ways that reduce the use of hospital care, such as avoiding admissions and readmissions. “What we found was that physicians will be in a scenario where their Medicare payments are increasing very slowly over the next 10 years,” Hussey said in an interview. “And the only way to increase those reimbursements is through participating in APMs which, if they are successful, keep patients out of hospital...
Source: Policy and Medicine - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs