Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

Plus: There’s a breakdown on the bundle brigade … again.

With the online tool to uncover your Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) status up and running, you can now discover whether you’re in or out of the new Medicare reimbursement program. But if the news that you must now report under MACRA for 2017is a shock to your practice, CMS wants to alleviate your stress.

CMS understands that many are still in the dark about Medicare’s new payment system and has assembled on-the-ground support and resources for both small, rural, and underserved practices and larger group practices with more than 15 eligible clinicians. The Quality Payment Program (QPP) Technical Assistance Resource Guide endeavors to make the transition for Medicare Part B providers from the Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) fee-for-service system to the new value-based, quality-focused plan under MACRA painless and efficient.

“We’re offering support to help you successfully participate in the Quality Payment Program, in either the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) or the Advanced Alternative Payment Model (APM) track,” the Technical Assistance Resource Guide fact sheet states. “This support is from on-the-ground organizations and resources that you can get for free right away.”

The guidance suggests that education and assistance will go to smaller and rural practices first with touch points available by region. Currently, 11 organizations across the nation are there to support providers struggling with the changes and demands of reporting the new measures.

For bigger groups of 15 or more, the Quality Innovation Network-Quality Improvement Organizations (QIN-QIO) offers tech support.

For more information about the QPP and this new technical-advice initiative, visit https://qpp.cms.gov/docs/QPP_Technical_Assistance_Resource_Guide.pdf.

In other news …

Medicare providers will just have to wait a little longer before they’ll see the effects of Medicare’s new Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement Model (CJR), which was put on hold for a second time on May 12 in a new Federal Register rule.

Originally, the CJR bundle was set to be available on Oct. 1, 2017. (See Medicare Compliance and Reimbursement Vol. 43, No.7). But after a brief public comment period showing confusion amongst providers over the new offerings, CMS decided to delay the release, the final rule suggests.

CMS has pushed the start date from July 1 to Jan. 1, 2018, according to a final rule. The rule also postpones the start date of CMS’s new episode payment models (EPMs) and the Cardiac Rehabilitation Incentive Payment Model (CR Incentive Model), law firm Hall Render notes in rule analysis.

See the final rule at: >https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2017-10340.pdf?utm_campaign=pi subscription mailing list&utm_source=federalregister.gov&utm_medium=email.