AMA Introduces MACRA Tools – MACRA Monday

This post is part of the MACRA Monday series of blog posts where we dive into the details of the MACRA Quality Payment Program.

The American Medical Association has released a package of online tools designed to help physicians cope with major changes to Medicare rolling out next year under MACRA. While it’s likely that practices will still have plenty of challenges to address on their own, these tools seem like they may offer a leg up on the subject, particularly for smaller practices with less resources to throw at MACRA issues.

One of the tools being introduced is the AMA Payment Model Evaluator (Sadly an account is required, but there’s an option to create a new account), designed to help doctors determine how their practices will be impacted by MACRA. The Evaluator, which was developed in partnership with physicians and AMA partners, asks physicians and medical practice administrators to fill out an online questionnaire on their practice. The Evaluator then offers an assessment of their specific situation, along with educational material and other resources. This includes recommendations on which MACRA payment model is best for them, which can help your practice know the best direction for your specific needs.

The AMA has also added new MACRA-specific tools to its AMA Steps Forward collection of practice improvement strategies. The STEPS modules help physicians determine how to report on quality metrics central to MACRA as well as the Physician Quality Reporting System. The STEPS modules each focus on a specific issue and offer solutions, steps for implementation, case studies, CME opportunities and downloadable additional tools.

In addition, the physician group has launched a podcast series, Inside Medicare’s New Payment System, featuring acting CMS administrator Andy Slavitt, AMA staff experts and other healthcare leaders. The series, which will include five episodes, should help get physicians up to speed on MACRA-related changes. I for one am eager to hear what Slavitt has to say about MACRA, as he is about the best source on the subject you could have.

At first glance, it doesn’t seem that the AMA plans to spend a lot of time on the Advancing Care Information subset of MIPS, better known as the replacement for the Meaningful Use program. I guess that’s not a huge surprise, given that physicians are still grappling with broad implications of MACRA which go well beyond HIT issues. However, given how important Meaningful Use has been to physicians over the past few years, one might expect it to get a little bit of special attention. Maybe they’re waiting for the MACRA final rule to come out.

With CMS casting a wider net and looking for more from medical practices than just adequate levels of EMR adoption, the AMA is probably following CMS’ path in talking about more than just the meaningful use (Advancing Care Information) portion of MACRA.

Be sure to check out all of our MACRA Monday blog posts where we dive into the details of the MACRA Quality Payment Program.

About the author

Anne Zieger

Anne Zieger is a healthcare journalist who has written about the industry for 30 years. Her work has appeared in all of the leading healthcare industry publications, and she's served as editor in chief of several healthcare B2B sites.

   

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