Alternative Payment Models (APM)Future of Health CareMACRAMerit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS)Performance ImprovementValue-Based Health Care
October 4, 2016

Improve Your Risk Readiness With Physician-Driven MACRA CPIA Innovation

CMS is pushing providers to accept Risk under Alternative Payment Models (APMs), and they’re sweetening the pot with incentives. But for the vast number of providers who will participate in MIPS because they don’t participate in risk-based APMs, the path to reward is murky. That’s because many Health Systems have a hard time visualizing how Performance Improvement with CPIAs can create savings under ACOs, the biggest APM model. Here’s the key: innovation that engages physicians. Historical Performance Improvement Often Leaves Out Physicians For most Health Systems, it’s rare for physicians to actively participate in Performance Improvement initiatives. There are two…
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Alternative Payment Models (APM)Future of Health CareMACRAMerit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS)Performance ImprovementQualified Clinical Data Registry ReportingValue-Based Health Care
September 27, 2016

Boost Your MIPS Score with Care Coordination CPIAs—Your Patients Will Thank You

The reaction to MACRA Pick Your Pace speaks volumes about the state of preparedness for the upcoming Quality Payment Program (QPP). Some see Pick Your Pace as a reprieve, others see it as a parachute, and a select few see it as a way to get a head start on their peers. There’s a danger to being in the first two camps. Neither fully recognizes that CMS will differentiate practices on Resource Use. As a result, they have no impetus to implement Clinical Practice Improvement Activities (CPIAs) focusing on Care Coordination; but this is an area that will impact each…
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Alternative Payment Models (APM)MACRAMerit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS)Performance ImprovementQualified Clinical Data Registry ReportingValue-Based Health Care
September 7, 2016

Back to School: Your Post-MACRA Study Guide for QPP Success

Back to school. That phrase prompts memories of making new friends (and catching up with old friends); carts full of notebooks, binders and pens; new classes; and, of course, abject terror. As the summer sun sets on PQRS, the Value Modifier (VM) and Meaningful Use (MU), it’s time for all of us to get into back-to-school mode, take the lessons we’ve learned and build on them for future success. Unfortunately, however, there’s an added challenge. Rather than having a season off to rest, regroup and ease into the new fall schedule, the transition from old programs to new is immediate…
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ACO ReportingAlternative Payment Models (APM)MACRAMerit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS)Qualified Clinical Data Registry Reporting
August 23, 2016

ACO Under MACRA? Five Essential Takeaways

While Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) get a little boost under proposed MACRA Rules, this comes at a price. MACRA provides a 5 percent bonus and a MIPS reporting exemption for providers who participate in an Advanced Alternative Payment Models, the most common being a Stage 2 or 3 ACO—if and only if they assume a minimum requirement for risk. The deal is this: CMS wants providers to move toward Alternative Payment Plans with greater financial risk by living under the equivalent of a budget for their patients’ health care. That concept, which imposes downstream risk to physicians if the budget…
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MACRAMerit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS)Performance ImprovementQualified Clinical Data Registry ReportingValue-Based Health Care
August 16, 2016

Can MACRA Help Patient-Centered Medical Homes Succeed?

The concept of a Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) fits neatly into Value-Based Health Care: patients who are well should incur lower costs. And, if primary care providers help patients who are not well to manage chronic diseases and better navigate the system, outcomes and costs should also improve. But those results are not yet proven. Like any new delivery model, the solution can only work if providers have the commitment and tools to realize its potential. This is why MACRA’s new emphasis on the Patient-Centered Medical Home includes many incentives to engage providers. The PCMH features strongly under MACRA. Medicare’s…
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Future of Health CareMACRAMerit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS)Performance ImprovementPQRS ReportingQualified Clinical Data Registry ReportingValue ModifierValue-Based Health CareValue-Based Payment Modifier
August 2, 2016

Use PQRS 2016 Reporting to Prepare for MACRA MIPS

In the last year of PQRS reporting, you may be tempted to take it easy and complete the bare minimum of reporting requirements. But don’t stick your head in the sand. First, PQRS and Value Modifier (VM) penalties are still alive and strong in 2016 and will affect your revenues in 2018. Second, if you’ve only been meeting reporting requirements and have yet to evaluate your performance, you stand to lose more under the tougher requirements of MACRA MIPS next year. We cannot stress this enough: 2016 should be the year to seriously evaluate your performance and create your strategy.…
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Alternative Payment Models (APM)MACRAMeaningful UseMerit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS)Performance ImprovementPQRS ReportingQualified Clinical Data Registry ReportingValue ModifierValue-Based Health CareValue-Based Payment Modifier
July 26, 2016

Closing the Book on PQRS (and Opening the MACRA Sequel)

Did you receive your confirmation email from the Physician Value Help Desk that your TIN was successfully registered for Group Practice reporting? If you did, which method did you select? Whether Registry, QCDR, EHR-Direct or the CMS Web Interface, you are officially locked into that choice, and it’s too late to back out. If you didn’t register, and are not in an ACO or another program that excuses you from PQRS (beware—this does NOT include Meaningful Use!), you’re still on the hook for PQRS and are locked into reporting at an individual level. Now that the registration deadline has passed,…
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Clinical Data RegistryMACRAMedical Decision-MakingMerit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS)Performance ImprovementQualified Clinical Data Registry ReportingRegistry ScienceResearch
July 19, 2016

MACRA Match-up: How EHR Source Data Will Benefit Registry Research

At the core of MACRA and MIPS requirements, Electronic Health Record (EHR) source data will soon become a key component for Registry research. Specifically, Clinical Performance Improvement Activities (CPIAs) are a required component of MIPS. Performance improvement efforts will no longer be optional. Quality data will be essential. EHRs present an excellent data resource, but the data is not flawless. Registries are well suited for validating data and assessing performance using a continuous improvement model—testing an idea by changing a practice and measuring its impact. When done on a small scale, testing performance improvement activities and the feasibility of population-based…
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ACO ReportingAlternative Payment Models (APM)MACRAMerit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS)Performance ImprovementQualified Clinical Data Registry ReportingValue-Based Health Care
July 12, 2016

MIPS v APM: Which Is Your Best Bet?

If you’ve been watching the signals from CMS, you undoubtedly know by now that the current reimbursement structure under Medicare will end, to be replaced by a Quality Payment Program (QPP) that holds providers at risk for resource use and quality. The ensuing choices, however, are confusing. Providers can select one of two QPP tracks: Continue Fee for Service (FFS) and fall under the Merit Incentive Payment System (MIPS) or participate in an Alternative Payment Model (APM), such as a risk-based ACO. So, how do you know if MIPS or APM is the best way to go, and on what…
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Alternative Payment Models (APM)MACRAMerit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS)Qualified Clinical Data Registry ReportingValue-Based Health Care
July 5, 2016

Succeed Under MACRA Medicare: How to Meet CPIAs for Full Credit in MIPS

Although many parts of MACRA’s MIPS continue Medicare’s existing quality programs, Clinical Performance Improvement Activities (CPIAs) forge a new direction. CPIAs are one of four MIPS components that practices must meet in order to obtain full reimbursement from Medicare. Forward planning is essential. It takes time to strategize and implement performance improvements, including partnerships and technology. To make this happen in 2017—the base year for performance measurement—providers must prepare before the MACRA rules are finalized. CPIAs are a unique sign of Medicare’s intent to hold practices accountable for improving health care outcomes. That’s a significant step in Medicare’s evolving role…
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