CMS To Announce MBIPS Program Details This Spring

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt said opening the lines of communication is first priority for 2016.

CMS has much on its plate this year and among those tasks is the release of details of the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System, according to Acting Administrator Andy Slavitt. Part of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) passed last year, the program requires CMS to rate doctors according to four criteria: quality, resource use, technology use, and practice enhancements. Slavitt discussed implementation of MACRA and Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) at the American Medical Association’s National Advocacy Conference in Washington, D.C.

Slavitt also recognized the wide swath of new programs and initiatives that have been introduced recently can be overwhelming for providers, stating “It is clear from listening to physicians there is fatigue — with change, with measurement, with new requirements that come from the outside and aren’t simple to implement.”

This is why our first priority for 2016 is opening the lines of communication and listening to the physicians and other clinicians who provide care to our beneficiaries. CMS has significant responsibility for implementing new laws which must intersect with an already complex system with many demands. I’m a believer in the maxim that it is almost always 90 percent about implementation,” said Slavitt.

CMS is committed to converting 50 percent of Medicare fee-for-services payments to a value-based model by 2018 and will spend $650 million to support more than 140,000 physicians moving to value-based payment to help facilitate that transition. The agency is also conducting eight physician focus groups, located in four markets nationwide, to get direct feedback regarding the MIPS program. “We are partnering with organizations and physician specialty societies across the country to help support these physicians to use data, technology, and quality measurements to improve care for their patients,” Slavitt said.

According to Slavitt, the payment model will be flexible and sensitive to the goals of a physician’s patient population and practice, but that the goal is to reward doctors for spending more time with their patients, rather than the number of drugs, tests or technologies they prescribe. Slavitt added that because MACRA is limited to physician offices, CMS is also looking at ways to incentivize hospitals to adopt these principles.