Attributable to:
Nitin S. Damle, MD, MS, MACP
President, ¹Ü¼ÒÆÅÐÄË®ÂÛ̳ (ACP)
October 13, 2016
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) today announced a promising 18-month initiative to minimize unnecessary administrative tasks. In conjunction with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA), this new effort aims to launch a nationwide effort to work with the clinician community to improve Medicare regulations and reduce burden.
As part of the program, clinicians will be engaged in regional discussions with CMS regarding documentation requirements and their interactions with the agency. Additionally, clinicians who are participating in certain advanced Alternative Payment Models (advanced APMs), given that they are already accepting financial risk, will be relieved from medical review documentation requirements—a policy approach that ACP has urged.
ACP is committed to working with CMS to ensure that this program truly results in meaningful reductions in onerous administrative tasks, and is expanded to include other advanced APMs, including the Comprehensive Primary Care Plus (CPC+) program and other Patient Centered Medical Homes (PCMHs). It is critical to us that this initiative be conducted in addition to – not in lieu of – other needed reforms to reduce burdensome administrative tasks and simplify MACRA implementation.
ACP looks forward to working with CMS to get physicians back to the most important thing they do—taking care of patients.
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The ¹Ü¼ÒÆÅÐÄË®ÂÛ̳ is the largest medical specialty organization and the second-largest physician group in the United States. ACP members include 148,000 internal medicine physicians (internists), related subspecialists, and medical students. Internal medicine physicians are specialists who apply scientific knowledge and clinical expertise to the diagnosis, treatment, and compassionate care of adults across the spectrum from health to complex illness. Follow ACP on and .
Contact:
David Kinsman, (202) 261-4554
dkinsman@acponline.org