The 2020 Proposed Rule gives ACOs a big advantage when reporting CQM for MIPS next year. For those ACOs who can influence their clinics to report quality on their own (rather than have the ACO do it for them), the rules give a big bonus (extra 50...
This year, CMS published its shortest set of updates to MACRA yet. Of course, "short" is a relative term and there are only 108 pages of Federal Register content to contemplate. After a rather dramatic set of 2019 changes, we might be starting to...
Doug Blinco is a colleague of mine, who works in Wellstar Health Systems, also part of a large ACO in Georgia. Doug recently shared an experience with me that we are calling “CMS doesn’t always get it right”. Over the course of the several months...
There is a new Best Practice in town. Really - it is worthwhile this year! MACRA reimbursement goes up each time thresholds get higher, and scoring gets harder. 2019 will be the hardest year yet - and that difficulty should drive more dollars into...
I can't tell you how often I've heard that MACRA payments can't be predicted. Hogwash! The rules are complex, and contain variables adjusted annually. But here is a nice table that can help with CMS-originated variables:
Prior Results are not an indicator of future performance! Whether you decide to join an ACO, or to remain independent, your decision contractually impacts your next five years of Medicare reimbursement. Financially analyzing "join or not join"...
The first two years have been easy. CMS defined MACRA that way with transitional rules designed to attain high participation, while minimizing penalties for small and rural providers. The practical upshot has been that penalty pools are sparsely...
In the big picture, CMS is doing the "right thing" with Clinical Quality Measures. The concept that providers can evaluate their Quality performance in near real time is a giant leap forward from the world of year-end reporting with Manual...
ACOs are not big organizations. And everyone has a job to do, without a lot of time built in for unexpected work.
We believe strongly in measuring and managing Monthly MACRA, throughout the year. With regulatory changes in 2019, Monthly MACRA...
If you want to engage ACO TINs in your Monthly MACRA program, you will want a simple, relevant and consistent communication vehicle.
A well-organized MACRA database should be the source for newsletter content customized to each TIN. The first thing...