The following excerpt is from an article found on Medical Economics. It was written by Joseph Burns. --------------------------- Beginning in 2019, the new Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS), which is part of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA), will raise the focus on physician performance measurement to a new level. Robert A. Berenson, MD, a fellow at the Urban Institute in Washington, DC, recently authored an article in JAMA Forum critical of the legislation’s focus on doctors’ performance on what he calls a few, random, unreliable measures that he says give a misleading view of a physician’s work. A board-certified internist who practiced for 20 years before pursuing a health policy career, Berenson is one of the nation’s best-known health policy experts. He has served on the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, has headed up Medicare payment policy and private health plan contracting in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), and served as an assistant director of the White House Domestic Policy Staff under President Carter.

Since the passing of MACRA, the Medicare Access & CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015, healthcare providers who treat Medicare patients will be making changes in how they report on the level of quality they provide. New information about the impending changes came from the Department of Health and Human Services this year. The Department of HHS released its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking in April of this year in an effort to begin implementing MACRA. It’s a bid to overhaul and modernize the way healthcare providers report information necessary before getting paid. With a goal to reduce the burden of healthcare costs on American taxpayers, MACRA is designed to help providers report data on the quality of services. With that in mind, here are five important things every physician needs to know about MACRA, which will begin implementation in 2019.

Only the most foolhardy organization would continue to operate as it does year after year without some kind of ongoing assessment of operations. This is particularly true when it comes to medicine and healthcare providers. The field of medicine is always evolving, as are the means by which we test, assess and treat each patient. If you don’t have a good idea of how patients feel about the service you provide, there’s a chance you are alienating some of them to the point where they might seek treatment elsewhere. What you need to do is gather patient feedback on an ongoing basis. After soliciting information from them, you will go over the results and use the data to improve your practice.

Since the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (under the auspices of the U.S. government’s Department of Health and Human Services) began paying separately for chronic care management services under a new Current Procedural Terminology or CPT code, many healthcare organizations have questions about the nature of CCM. Medicare has been making payments to reimburse providers for CCM service using CPT code 99490 only since January 1, 2015, so it’s natural for healthcare professionals to have questions still. Now it’s time to learn more about chronic care management.

Managing growth may become one of your more interesting challenges as your medical practice becomes ever more successful. As you take on more patients and offer a wider array of RCM services or additional specialists, for example, your revenue expands as well.

The health and stability of the computational and software infrastructure that supports your medical organization is not a subject to take lightly. Applications that are vital to day to day operations must be reliable and fulfill your current requirements as well future needs, such as expandability for when your practice grows in scope and size.

The pressure to contain costs in the nation’s health care system is mounting. One area where the government is keenly interested in making changes is to promote the quality of care rather than the sheer volume of care being provided. To that end, there is a move to streamline the methods healthcare organizations use to report the level of quality they deliver to each patient. Of particular note is the fact that the Department of Health and Human Services is making changes in how Medicare payments will be paid for in connection with the quality and costs of the services. Modernizing how Medicare will pay doctors for quality is designed to save taxpayers money and help the entire system run more efficiently. In order to get up to speed on the legislative efforts involved, you’ll need to become familiar with the terms MACRA, MIPS and APM.

How satisfied and loyal do you think your patients are? In an era of increased competition, it’s of paramount importance that you nurture each patient and keep him or her satisfied with the services you provide. If you’re looking for one simple secret for boosting patient referrals, the ultimate answer is: make sure your existing patients stay happy and engaged.

It often seems that people are far busier today than they were in recent years, and this is reflected in part by their growing use of smartphones while on the go. Trying to stay constantly connected with friends, family and coworkers with a portable device that you keep with you at all times for research as well as entertainment can make for some frazzled nerves and increased frustration. It’s no wonder that patients may seem less engaged when they come to your medical organization, with so many distractions pulling at them and fighting for their attention. Getting them more involved in healthcare discussions and their treatment plans should be of paramount importance. It’s clear that now is the time for you to prioritize patient engagement.

The following excerpt is from an article found on PR Newswire. It was written by The Advisory Board. ----------------------------------------- While care transformation continues to lead the list of concerns for hospital and health system executives, this year two of the top four topics relate to patients' non-clinical needs, according to The Advisory Board Company's Annual Health Care CEO Survey. Specifically, meeting consumer expectations and patient engagement made notable moves up the list.