American Medical Association, Trinity Health and Blue Cross Blue Shield representatives called for CMS to postpone its Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act at a panel on July 1l. Alliance for Health Reform hosted the panel, which AMA and BCBS sponsored, according to MedPage Today.
Under MACRA, physicians can participate in the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System or the Alternative Payment Models. MIPS consists of a weighted score of quality, resource use, meaningful use and practice improvement scores. Physicians have the opportunity to receive financial bonuses if they obtain good quality outcomes. However, many may face penalties if they fail to meet CMS' requirements.
Here are five things to know:
1. AMA Integrated Physician Practice Section Governing Council Chair Thomas Eppes Jr., MD, argued MACRA places too much administrative burden on physicians, and CMS' time period for providers to fully understand and meet MACRA requirements is not long enough. Therefore, AMA is asking CMS to extend MACRA start time by six months from January 2017 to July 2017.
2. Dr. Eppes and the AMA are asking CMS to implement several considerations including, but not limited to:
• Making the reporting requirements for quality and clinical practice improvement simpler
• Raising the low-volume threshold that exempts more physicians from MIPS default payment program
3. Tonya Wells, vice president of public policy and federal advocacy for Trinity Health in Livonia, Mich., is recommending CMS push back the start date to 2018, as well as extending the first MIPS and advanced APM payment year from 2019 to 2020.
4. Donald Fischer, MD, MBA, of DRFischer Consulting in Pittsburgh, argued BCBS would rather delay the performance period's state data or stagger the dates. Dr. Fischer was previously chief medical officer for BCBS's western Pennsylvania affiliate.
5. Yet, Mara McDermott, vice president of federal affairs at CAPG in Washington, argued many physicians have been preparing for changes in the wake of MACRA, saying "We're very concerned about delay, leading to more delay." Ms. McDermott did not sit on the panel.
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