This post is part of the MACRA Monday series of blog posts where we dive into the details of the MACRA Quality Payment Program.
A new study suggests that the common-sense approach to handling MACRA issues – getting everyone on your team engaged with issues that arise – is popular among medical practices.
According to Stoltenberg Consulting’s Fifth Annual Health IT Industry Outlook Survey, which polled a mix of IT professionals and executives at HIMSS17, the industry is still struggling to begin their MACRA process. In fact, 64 percent of respondents said that they were unprepared or very unprepared to handle MACRA.
On the other hand, many have a good idea of how they’ll proceed. The survey found that 68 percent of respondents said that practices should bring together clinical, financial and IT staffers when tackling MACRA challenges.
Even so, respondents had some significant concerns about their capabilities. Thirty-one percent of respondents said that revising data management and reporting processes to meet new reporting requirements was their biggest Quality Payment Program challenge. Almost tied was the need to motivate the entire organization to work together towards MACRA goals.
In its commentary, Stoltenberg expands on these themes. “Successful MACRA QPP reporting will take more than just passive submission of claim data,” the report states. “MACRA QPP success requires a defined, focused team which includes IT, clinical and operational departments all led by an executive representative. By combining their expertise, team members can better capture, maintain and analyze data that demonstrates program requirement achievement.”
But creating a team isn’t enough, the consulting firm notes. To move forward, the team must become thoroughly familiar with MACRA QPP and its subtleties. Then, the team will be equipped to evaluate the group’s existing reporting mechanism, decide which reporting gaps exist and figure out how to close them.
Then, the team should create a multi-year roadmap for meeting QPP requirements, including a look at alternative QPP paths they could take and what the impact on reimbursement might be, the report recommends. “A roadmap will allow a healthcare organization to quickly adapt its MACRA program from year to year, preparing for more stringent requirements in future reporting years or transition from one reporting path to another.”
In addition to addressing MACRA issues, the researchers looked at issues in staffing healthcare IT departments. Fourty-four percent of respondents said that their department wasn’t fully staffed because they lacked the budget to do enough hiring.
Meanwhile, 43 percent said they hadn’t encountered enough qualified, experienced job candidates to fill their open positions. Also, 54 percent said that finding qualified health IT staff and support was difficult, and 28 percent said it was very difficult.
To close these hiring gaps, Stoltenberg recommended that healthcare organizations consider investing in training high-potential IT staffers with less experience, and pair them with advisors who can help them grow their skills.
Be sure to check out all of our MACRA Monday blog posts where we dive into the details of the MACRA Quality Payment Program.
