Dive Brief:
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CMS has awarded around $20 million this year to 11 organizations to assist practices with fewer than 15 clinicians prepare for MACRA and will award an additional $80 million from 2018 to 2021.
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The organizations receiving funds in 2017 are Altarum, Georgia Medical Care Foundation, HealthCentric, Health Services Advisory Group, IPRO, Network for Regional Healthcare Improvement (NRHI), QSource, Qualis Quality Insights, Telligen and TMF Health Quality Institute.
- Some have expressed concern over the ability of providers, particularly those in small practices, to comply with MACRA, but CMS seems to be signaling its commitment to helping them succeed.
Dive Insight:
CMS drew a lot of criticism when it released a proposed MACRA rule that would have penalized almost 90% of small practices and solo practitioners according to its own data. However, the agency has been applauded for scaling back MACRA requirements in the first year and the MACRA training funds seem to indicate CMS is keeping its attention on small practices.
In September, CMS announced “pick-your-pace” options for participating in the MACRA Quality Payment Program in the first year. While providers can still participate fully, some can instead essentially test the water and avoid financial penalties. “They have really pulled back on what’s required next year by introducing the pick-your-pace options,” Stephanie Zaremba, director of government and regulatory affairs at athenahealth, told Healthcare Dive in September 2016. “There’s a pretty low bar providers can set to avoid penalties.”
CMS is also taking other steps to help providers prepare for MACRA. The agency has released webinars and scheduled in-person presentations to deliver training to providers since the final rule was released in October. Providers can also receive in-person training through Quality Innovation Networks, Transforming Clinical Practice Initiatives and Alternative Payment Model Learning Systems.
While CMS has launched a campaign to aid providers and MACRA has been applauded for streamlining reporting programs, significant changes to reporting and billing requirements are underway. Some industry experts think that CMS could do more to help providers. “What I would like to see is a little more training and education on the part of CMS to... almost over-communicate what requirements are,” Venson Wallin, a managing director for BDO Consulting, told Healthcare Dive story earlier this month.