For Medicare's New Approach To Physician Payment, Big Questions Remain.
The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) established a new framework for Medicare physician payment. Designed to stabilize uncertain payment rates for Medicare's fee-for-service (FFS) system and incentivize physicians to move into new alternative payment systems, MACRA contains several uncertainties of its own. In a textbook illustration of why it's important to be careful what you wish for, it's increasingly easy to predict that implementation of MACRA will be delayed as a result of both regulatory and legislative breaches of its statutory timeline. This article traces the contemporary history of the Medicare physician payment system and efforts to implement additional changes.
Billy Wynne (bwynne@thornrun.com) is the managing partner of TRP Health Policy, a division of the government relations firm Thorn Run Partners. Previously, he served as Health Policy Counsel to the US Senate Finance Committee.
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D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000191:economics; D004470:Economics, Medical; D018588:Fee-for-Service Plans / Q000639:trends*; D005260:Female; D005544:Forecasting; D018166:Health Care Reform / Q000191:economics*; D005102:Health Expenditures; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D006278:Medicare / Q000191:economics; D010816:Physician Incentive Plans / Q000191:economics* / Q000639:trends; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000191:economics* / Q000639:trends; D011445:Prospective Payment System / Q000191:economics* / Q000639:trends; D014481:United States
Medicare; Organization and Delivery of Care; Physician Payment; Physicians; Quality Of Care