AMA offers tools to help physicians implement MACRA

AMA has developed a Merit-based Incentive Payment System Action Plan that can be personalized for individual health care professionals to help them meet Quality Payment Program requirements, according to a press release.

The association also said physicians can use the plan to gauge their performance in the implementation of these requirements.

The resources come as clinicians prepare for what the association called the first comprehensive changes in Medicare payments in 30 years, and after an AMA survey earlier this year that indicated more than half of all doctors are not completely ready for the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015, or MACRA’s, implementation.

According to AMA, MACRA promises to reshape how Medicare pays physicians under the Quality Payment Program by encouraging them to adopt value-based models in health care.

“The AMA has achieved notable regulatory victories that have streamlined the reporting required in 2017, and we strongly encourage physicians to take a few important steps so they aren’t penalized by CMS,” David O. Barbe, MD, said in the release. “The AMA is providing a number of resources to educate and empower physicians, including informational podcasts, a payment model evaluator, and a new step-by-step guide that offers a brief assessment of where a practice stands.”

According to the press release, some of those other tools include:

•a ReachMD podcast series, “Inside Medicare’s New Payment System,” featuring past and present CMS leaders;

•the Payment Model Evaluator, which provides initial assessments to physicians to help ascertain how their practice will be impacted by MACRA;

•an AMA Wire series on MACRA/Quality Payment Program; and

•video titled “One patient, one measure, no penalty: How to avoid a Medicare payment penalty with basic reporting.”

These resources can be obtained by visiting AMA-assn.org/MACRA.

Disclosure: Barbe is president of AMA.