AHA submits MACRA recommendations to House hearing

The AHA today submitted to the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee several overarching recommendations for the Merit-based Incentive Payment System and Alternative Payment Models that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will implement in 2019 under the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act. In a statement for a hearing on implementing the law, AHA urged the adoption of a MIPS that “measures providers fairly, minimizes unnecessary data collection and reporting burden, focuses on important quality issues and promotes collaboration across the silos of the health care delivery system.” To achieve this, the association said CMS should focus the MIPS measures on national priority areas; allow hospital-based physicians to use their hospital’s performance on quality reporting and pay-for-performance measures in the MIPS; employ risk adjustment rigorously – including sociodemographic adjustment, where appropriate; and align Electronic Health Record Incentive Program changes for physicians with those for eligible hospitals. AHA said the APM incentives should be implemented in a manner that provides the greatest opportunity for physicians to become qualifying participants. The association also urged Congress to adopt a broad exception to fraud and abuse laws that impede collaboration and improvement across the care continuum. The AHA statement also is available at www.aha.org/macra.