AHA issues tool to help hospitals prepare for new physician payment system

The AHA today released a tool to help hospitals and their clinician partners prepare for the proposed Jan. 1 start of the Quality Payment Program, created by the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015. This is especially important given the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ recent announcement about new reporting flexibility for 2017, which lacked specific details. “This tool will help hospitals evaluate where to invest time and resources in preparing for the program by identifying the areas where we can predict with some certainty what the final program will look like, the areas where we expect some changes in the final rule (“proceed with caution”) and the areas where we expect to see major changes,” writes Ashley Thompson, AHA senior vice president for public policy analysis and development, in an AHA Stat blog post. Over the next few weeks, AHA will roll out additional tools to assist with MACRA implementation and education, including an educational video series. To access the MACRA Tracker tool, visit www.aha.org/MACRA.