MACRA Comment Period Ends With Burst of Feedback
Reaction to CMS’s proposed rule includes from MGMA that the proposal “provides almost no opportunities for medical groups to begin the shift away from fee-for-service reimbursement.”
Physicians may not despise (MACRA) as much as they did the sustainable growth rate (SGR) formula, but the Centers for Medicare & medicaid Services’ proposed rule for implementation of the Medicare Access and Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act isn’t winning any popularity contests.
Emblematic of how physicians responded were the comments left by Charles A. Adams, Jr., MD. “While anything that did away with the flawed and completely ineffective SGR should be an improvement, adoption of MACRA will likely not have the desired effect that it hopes to realize,” he wrote.
In all, more than 1,200 comments were submitted by individuals, hospital and physician groups, and consumer advocates.
The American Hospital Association
“The AHA is extremely disappointed that few of the models in which hospitals have engaged will qualify as advanced alternative payment models (APMs); we urge CMS to adopt a more inclusive approach,” said the AHA in its comments.
“Specifically, we are concerned that CMS’s proposed approach fails to recognize the significant resources providers invest in the development of APMs, because under the proposal, an APM generally must require participating entities to accept significant downside risk to quality as an advanced APM.”