Physicians and their teams gathered at the NCMS Center for Leadership in Medicine yesterday for a free, day-long workshop presented by the National Rural Accountable Care Consortium (NRACC), a Practice Transformation Network. Learn more about NRACC and what a Practice Transformation Network is and how it can help your practice here.
Physicians and their teams gathered at the NCMS Center for Leadership in Medicine yesterday for a free, day-long workshop presented by the National Rural Accountable Care Consortium (NRACC), a Practice Transformation Network. Learn more about NRACC and what a Practice Transformation Network is and how it can help your practice here.

The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) passed Congress with strong bipartisan support in 2015. It is not going away. This massive piece of legislation combines previous programs like meaningful use and the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) among others into what is collectively called the Quality Payment Program (QPP). Within the QPP, there are two paths a practice may follow – the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and the Alternative Payment Model (APM). Here is a quick guide to the alphabet soup of ‘MACRA-nyms.
The bottom line:  if you care for Medicare patients, you need to familiarize yourself with where your practice fits within the QPP.  The program begins this year, and if you do nothing you could see a 4 percent reduction in Medicare fees beginning in 2019. The good news is that if you do even a minimal amount of reporting, you will likely avoid a fee reduction and you may even see an increase.
Let us know where you are on your MACRA journey by taking this quick 5-question survey. Your input will allow us to tailor resources to help you.

TAKE THE SURVEY.

Many resources are available to help you get up to speed.

  • Check out the NCMS’ guide to the first steps you need to take.
  • The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) have a robust menu of options to learn about the QPP and how to get started.
  • The AMA also has resources available to help. On April 20, they will hold a webinar to help you transition to and succeed under this new system. Learn more and register.
  • Until June 30, CMS is collecting input from clinicians on what measures and activities should be considered for MIPS performance categories in coming years. This is your opportunity to submit what you think is a reasonable measures of quality performance, EHR information performance and improvement activities. Learn more.
  • The NCMS stands ready to help by making a presentation to your group or connecting you with the right resources through our Solution Center. Contact Belinda McKoy at 919-833-3836 x142.
  • The NCMS website also has a list of links to key resources.
  • For those practices that are part of an Accountable Care Organization, your future looks bright under MIPS, according to this article by Lynn Barr, a nationally recognized leader in rural health care policy and accountable care. According to Barr, ACO participation can increase MACRA performance scores by 30 percent.

Watch the NCMS Bulletin and website as more resources become available.