The impending implication of CMS' Medicare Access and Children's Health Insurance Program Act of 2015 has executives scrambling to prepare their health systems.
Here are five key points CMS' MACRA::
1. MACRA is taking the Sustainable Growth Rate formula's place. Lawmakers used the SGR formula to update Medicare's physician fee schedule.
2. A key MACRA component is the Quality Payment Program, which will pay providers based on cost, quality, technology advancement, and clinical improvement measures. CMS proposed the QPP in October 2016.
3. Within MACRA, physicians can participate in three payment options:
● Merit-based Incentive Payment System
● Advanced Alternative Payment Model
● A MIPS-APM hybrid
4. Health Affairs published a study finding MACRA will cause between a $35 billion and $106 billion drop in Medicare spending for physician services. The decrease will be between 2.3 percent and 7.1 percent of what Medicare currently pays physicians.
5. A Healthcare Informatics survey found 80 percent of physicians in practices with 15 physicians or fewer said they needed help with MACRA or weren't prepared at all. Among practices with 16 to 50 physicians 72 percent said they weren't prepared for MACRA or needed help.