As physician burnout rates continue to climb and physicians struggle complying with CMS' many reporting requirements, HHS Secretary Tom Price, MD, said physicians should recommend ideas for new Medicare payment models, according to Bloomberg Law.
Dr. Price urged physicians to provide recommendations during the first Physician-Focused Payment Model Technical Advisory Committee meeting. MACRA created the technical committee in 2015.
Here are five points:
1. Dr. Price says CMS' MACRA works under a "one size fits all" approach which is driving burnout. Because physicians face different issues based where they practice, Dr. Price said physicians practicing in underserved or rural areas should give input to specific challenges they face and models that would work well for them.
2. The committee is currently considering physician-focused payment models that aim to move providers off the fee-for-service payment system.
3. The 11-member committee rejected one model so far. The panel vetoed Sacramento, Calif.-based Pulmonary Medicine, Infectious Disease and Critical Care Consultants Medical Group's model because it failed two of the 10 categories the panel uses to assess recommendations.
4. Illinois Gastroenterology Group recommended Project Sonar, a care management program that aims to improve care management for chronic diseases patients with the overall goal of truncating care's costs. Project Sonar is one of the two models that the committee recommended for limited-scale testing.
5. American College of Surgeons-Brandeis Advanced APM submitted the other model that the committee recommended for limited-scale testing. This model utilizes episodes of care to evaluate savings and losses as well as adjust payments based on the quality of care.