Earlier this week, forty-four physician associations and societies sent a letter to Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator, Seema Verma, urging her to reduce the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) Quality reporting period to 90 consecutive days in 2018.
The organizations cite concerns about the readiness of CMS itself, including a lack of timely notification of physicians regarding MIPS eligibility and a significant delay in updating the CMS Quality Payment Program (QPP) QPP web portal with 2018 information.
“It is our understanding that CMS does not plan to update the QPP website with 2018 information and measures until the summer, at the earliest,” the associations contend.
Going further, the medical associations and societies ask for a reduced reporting period in future reporting years to decrease administrative burden and ensure physicians have sufficient time to report after receiving performance feedback from CMS.
The letter also references concerns about modifications to MACRA under the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, namely exclusion of Medicare Part B drug costs from payment adjustments and low-volume eligibility thresholds. Based on these changes, physicians have had to wait for notification from CMS to determine eligibility, rather than historic data.
The letter also pointed out CMS’ commitment to reduce clinical burden and “put patients over paperwork”, while estimating recordkeeping and data submission costs will reach 7.6 million hours and nearly $700 million.
For more information, see the full letter to CMS here.