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ACP to physicians: Prepare for Quality Payment Program

SAN DIEGO — Members of the ACP discussed the major transition to a more quality based payment program, urging practices and physicians to familiarize themselves with the program and utilize a new tool to prepare for the shift during a press briefing at ACP’s Internal Medicine Meeting.

“ACP has been a leader in payment reform,” Nitin S. Damle, MD, MS, MACP, president of ACP, said during the press briefing. “We believe that payment based on value is much more important than one based purely on volume. We are looking forward to helping physicians transition over in that model.”

The first thing practices need to understand is where they stand within the MACRA law by determining whether the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System, the advanced Alternative Payment model or Comprehensive Primary Care Plus is the best pathway, Damle said.

“Consolidating Medicare’s reporting programs into a single program should make reporting less cumbersome and complicated,” Robert McLean, MD, FACP, a practicing physician from New Haven, Conn. and the chair of ACP’s Medical Practice and Quality Committee, said. “However, it is still extremely difficult to implement a new system in your practice. This is especially true for practices that have not been as far along in the movement toward payment reform.”

ACP has updated its top 10 list for practices and physicians to be able to be ready to participate in the Quality Payment Program this year and in upcoming years, Shari Erickson, MPH, vice president of ACP’s Governmental Affairs and Medical Practice, noted.

The program is not overly onerous this year, physicians only need to report on one measure or one clinical improvement activity or one set of measures related to advancing care component to at least be protected from negative payment adjustment, she said.

Practices and physicians should learn about the Quality Payment Program, test it out at a minimum and ideally, do more than one measure, Erickson said. To help internists understand and implement the Quality Payment Program, as well as determine the best pathway, the ACP released a new web-based tool — Quality Payment Advisor — earlier this week, she added.

The tool uses an individual practice’s characteristics, quality measurement experience and quality improvement activities to point to resources that are much more tailored to a practice’s or physician’s needs, she said.

“Using ACP’s Quality Payment Advisor is one of the ways that we think practices should be getting ready for the Quality Payment Program now,” Erickson said. “The advisor can help you select the best options for your practice and determine what pace you’ll take for Quality Payment Program under MACRA in 2017.” – by Alaina Tedesco

Reference:

Damle NS, McLean R, Erickson S. Medicare Payment Reform: Implementing MACRA and the Quality Payment Program. Presented at: ACP Internal Medicine Annual Meeting; March 29-April 1, 2017; San Diego.

Disclosure: The members report no relevant financial disclosures.