We usually wait until Monday to do our weekly MACRA Monday blog posts. However, today the MACRA final rule dropped and so we thought we’d do MACRA Monday on a Friday. Since the rule just came out this morning, we haven’t had a chance to do much analysis. No doubt we’ll do a lot more analysis, summarizing, etc in the future. For this post, I just wanted to share with you the various places you can go to find the final rule and summaries of the final rule that will be helpful.
The first resource you need is the MACRA final rule itself. Yes, it’s 2398 pages, but remember that CMS is required to respond to the feedback that was given in the proposed MACRA rule. The rule itself is much shorter, but the explanation of the rule is quite long. As Andy Slavitt noted, it’s long in the interest of transparency.
The reality is that most of you will only want to check out the MACRA Final Rule Executive Summary. It’s only 24 pages and should give most people what they need to know about the MACRA final rule. You can leave the 2398 page final rule to the health IT policy wonks.
Along with the executive summary, CMS has put out a new website with resources, education, and tools for the Quality Payment Program (Or as we call it, MACRA). The Education and Tools page has some great resources for those wanting to learn more about MACRA.
If you plan to participate in MIPS, then you’re likely going to use the Explore Measures page. Considering MACRA’s increase in the number of measures, this page will help you navigate through the various measures and decide which measures you’re going to do as part of MACRA.
If you want a higher level look at what CMS did to put together the MACRA final rule, take a second to read through Andy Slavitt’s letter to Clinicians. We might disagree with the details of MACRA, but after reading letters like this it’s hard to argue that Andy Slavitt and his team aren’t listening to providers and healthcare’s feedback on these rules.
That’s all for today. Happy reading this weekend! Over the next months and years we’ll be diving into the details of the program. If you’re reviewing the final rule like us, share any insights or findings you find interesting in the comments. It takes a large community to understand new rules like this.
