The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced a new initiative to improve the clinician experience with the Medicare program. The goal of the initiative is to reshape the physician experience by reviewing regulations and policies to minimize administrative tasks and seek other input to improve clinician satisfaction. The initiative will be led by senior physicians within CMS who will report to the Office of the Administrator.
“Physicians and their care teams are the most vital resource a patient has. As we implement the Quality Payment Program under MACRA, we cannot do it without making a sustained, long-term commitment to take a holistic view on the demands on the physician and clinician workforce,” said Andy Slavitt, CMS Acting Administrator. “The new initiative will launch a nationwide effort to work with the clinician community to improve Medicare regulations, policies, and interaction points to address issues and to help get physicians back to the most important thing they do – taking care of patients.”
Slavitt appointed Dr. Shantanu Agrawal to lead the development of this function and implementation, which will cover documentation requirements and existing physician interactions with CMS, among other aspects of provider experiences. To ensure CMS is hearing from physicians on the ground, each of the 10 CMS regional offices will oversee local meetings to take input from physician practices within the next six months and regular meetings thereafter. These local meetings will result in a report with targeted recommendations to the CMS Administrator in 2017. Three of CMS’s regional Chief Medical Officers – Dr. Barbara Connors in Philadelphia, Dr. Ashby Wolfe in San Francisco, and Dr. Richard Wild in Atlanta – have agreed to serve as regional champions of this initiative.
Learn more about the first project in the initiative here.