Proposed Medicare Rules Dangerous to Patients and Their Doctors.
Tell CMS to Cease Implementation of MACRA.
Sold by many as “SGR repeal,” the 300 page Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) of 2015 (HR 2) has spawned a 962 page CMS proposed rule implementing the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and Alternative Payment Models (APM).
While created under the guise of increasing “quality” and “value,” in reality this is the latest attempt to coerce doctors to comply with cookbook medicine and government rationing protocols. “Compliance is impossible, and attempted compliance is incompatible with practicing medicine,” states AAPS Executive Director Jane Orient MD.
By CMS’ own estimates, 87% of solo physicians will be penalized under these new rules, while 81% in giant groups earn bonuses. Even the Obama Administration’s former Health Information Technology chief confesses that MACRA is “financial suicide” for independent physicians.
- Tell CMS that MACRA rules are dangerous to patients and their doctors. Implementation must be stopped. Visit to reach the CMS comment form. Comments are due 6/27.
- Share your concerns with your U.S. Senators and Representative. The Capitol switchboard is (202) 224-3121 and you can easily reach the online contact forms for your Congressional delegation here: http://www.contactingthecongress.org/
- Physicians: Start considering opting out of Medicare to protect your patients and your practice from this massive overreach. Medicare Patients: opted out physicians offer advantages unavailable in the system.
There are too many bad things in MACRA to mention them all.
Here are a few more crucial points:
- A physician’s “compliance score” is tied to “resource use.” Physicians will be increasingly pressured to make decisions that save resources for Medicare instead of decisions that are in the best interest of their individual patients.
- Compliance is also tied to mandatory use of government certified EHRs which are harmful to patient medical privacy and also detract from face-to-face patient care. The government would gain even greater ability to snoop into patient medical records.
- The rules allow ALL insurance-based care, not just Medicare, to be phased in to these harmful payment models.
- The free market is the proven solution for tying payment to value. Decades of past attempts by Medicare policy experts to do this have all failed and have actually divorced payment from value.
Additional Resources:
Handout you can make available to your patients to help get them involved:
click here for PDF file
Read comments submitted to CMS: http://1.usa.gov/1Te6Jlj
Audio from May 12, 2016 AAPS TeleForum on MACRA:
click here for SoundCloud link | click here for MP3 file
MACRA White Paper from AAPS Florida Chapter: http://www.flaaps.org/?p=34
