Congressional leaders urged to freeze MACRA incentive payment thresholds

Nineteen organizations representing physicians and hospitals, including the AHA, today urged congressional leaders to support legislation to freeze thresholds for clinicians to qualify for advanced alternative payment model incentive payments for the 2021 and 2022 performance years.

“As we enter the fifth year of incenting clinicians to move to APMs, we now understand that the original thresholds set in [the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015] are too high,” the organizations wrote. “A recent CMS report highlights that if these thresholds remain in place, a majority of clinicians will not qualify for this bonus moving forward. … Advanced APMs have proven to generate savings to Medicare and in the absence of these bonuses, we believe many clinicians will exit from APMs and revert to fee-for-service. This would be a significant detriment to moving our nation’s health care system to one that pays based on quality and value.”