Final MACRA Rule Issued October 14, 2016 AMA, MACRA, Physician Resource AMA, CMS, MACRA, Medicare 0 This morning, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a final rule implementing the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA). While the AMA is in the process of fully analyzing the regulations, a first review reveals that CMS responded to many of the concerns expressed by physicians about the proposed rule issued last spring. For example: Details are provided about the 2017 transition period announced in September. The only physicians who will experience payment penalties in 2019 are those who choose to report no performance data next year, and those who report for at least 90-days will be eligible for positive payment adjustments. The low-volume threshold that exempts physicians from all performance reporting has been increased from $10,000 in annual Medicare revenue and less than 100 Medicare patients to $30,000 in revenue or 100 patients. CMS estimates that this change will exempt 32.5 percent of physicians and other clinicians from the program. Performance reporting requirements have been further reduced, and the resource use component of the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) has been reweighted to zero for 2017. Resources CMS Resources - summaries, fact sheets and other CMS resources are available on the agency’s web site. AMA MACRA Resource Center CMA MACRA Resource Center Comments are closed.
