Docs' Threats to Leave Medicare Could Cause GOP to Slow MACRA Rollout

According to Modern Healthcare, Physicians have pledged to retire or leave Medicare as a result of burdens placed on them by the recently finalized payment rule. That could spur Republicans, soon to be fully in charge of the government, to slow federal value-based payment efforts.

But the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act, or MACRA, was a bipartisan policy change, making it unclear if the GOP would want to dial back a law that has received wide approval.

Last month, CMS finalized the rule that implements MACRA. To avoid penalties under the law, physicians will participate in one of two reimbursement tracks: a quality-based system or advanced alternative payment models.

In the Merit-based Incentive Payment System, known as MIPS, physicians’ Medicare pay will be based on success in four performance categories: quality, resource use, clinical practice improvement and “advancing care information,” which is based on the meaningful-use program the government has used to decide whether doctors should be rewarded for using electronic health records.

If physicians opt out of the MIPS track, they could participate in an alternative payment model, such as an accountable care organization or patient-centered medical home, which align doctors, hospitals and post-acute providers to coordinate care.

Despite finalizing the rule, the CMS left it open for comment, and complaints are pouring in from providers who say they are at wit’s end.

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Modern Healthcare – Docs’ threats to leave Medicare could cause GOP to slow MACRA rollout