This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
AMA, ACP urge CMS to revise proposed MACRA rule
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
In separate letters to CMS Administrator Seema Verma, MPH, the AMA and ACP submitted comments and recommendations to simplify and improve the proposed rule to update the Quality Payment Program that was established by the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act.
“When physicians are asked to move to a new program, we expect some bumps along the way,” David O. Barbe, MD, president of AMA, said in a press release. “CMS has been a good partner in smoothing out the bumps but the program still needs to be more understandable and less burdensome. The complexity is an obstacle to the goal of promoting innovative approaches to encourage higher value care. We applaud CMS’ decision to allow for another transition year for [the Merit-Based Incentive Payment Systems (MIPS)], recognizing the challenges physicians face both bureaucratic and technological. The willingness to compromise will help physicians and patients alike.”
Although CMS has made several essential proposals to improve the program, efforts to further simplify and streamline the program need to continue while creating more opportunities for participant in the new value-based payment options, according to AMA. In its letter, the AMA urged the agency to ensure that the transition to the new payment system is smooth, allows clinicians to adopt and invest in practices and improves patient care and constrains costs. The AMA recommended that CMS promote and facilitate the development of physician-led Alternative Payment Models by offering technical assistance and data. The association also provided several recommendations to improve the overall MIPS scoring, including establishing a low performance threshold and expanding the reliability threshold. The AMA praised the CMS’s response to concerns regarding small and rural practices.
Previous research has found that physicians spend nearly 50% of their time on electronic health record and administrative desk work, AMA noted. Therefore, new programs must not significantly add to the clerical burden, according to AMA.
The ACP also provided recommendations aiming to simplify the Quality Payment Program’s scoring method, enhance requirements for performance reporting, reduce the administrative burden and offer more opportunities for small practices to be successful.
Specifically, the ACP restated that CMS should build a learning health and health care system through its opportunity with the new MACRA law. The CMS should collaborate with specialty societies, frontline clinicians, patients and EHR vendors to reduce physician burnout and incorporate the measurement of and reporting on performance with quality improvement and care delivery, according to ACP. ACP also advised that in developing MIPS and Alternative Payment Models pathways and performance measures, the CMS should prioritize the best interest of patients, families and the relationship of patients and families with their physicians. In addition, ACP urged that the CMS put patients first to reduce excessive administrative tasks. CMS should also improve patient-centered medical homes and patient-centered specialty practices, according to ACP.
“It is critically important to recognize that the legislative intent of MACRA is to truly improve care for Medicare beneficiaries and thus, the policy that is developed to implement the Medicare Quality Payment Program must be thoughtfully considered in that context,” Jacqueline W. Fincher, MD, MACP, chair of ACP’s Medical Practice and Quality Committee, said in a press release. “Our comments to CMS offer concrete suggestions on how to simplify reporting of performance measures and activities and provide more choices and opportunities for all internal medicine physicians to be successful, no matter what their practice size or structure.” – by Alaina Tedesco
Disclosure: Healio Internal Medicine was unable to confirm relevant financial disclosures at the