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BCMS LEGISLATIVE
NEWS

CMS PROPOSES BIG MEDICARE

CHANGES FOR 2019

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) last week TMA staff experts have begun a detailed analysis of the proposed
proposed what the agency called “historic changes” in the Medicare rule and will offer written comments by the Sept. 10 deadline. As
program. TMA is already digging deep into the proposal to make always, staff will work with TMA’s various councils and committees
sure the changes are good for Texas physicians and your patients. as the comments are drafted, but if you have something specific
“Today’s proposals deliver on the pledge to put patients over pa- you would like to say, please pass it on by emailing
perwork,” said CMS Administrator Seema Verma. “The proposed HIT@texmed.org.
changes to the Physician Fee Schedule and Quality Payment Pro- The Physician Fee Schedule establishes payment for physicians
gram (QPP) address those problems head-on, by streamlining doc- and other clinicians who treat Medicare patients.
umentation requirements to focus on patient care and by CMS created the QPP under the Medicare Access and CHIP
modernizing payment policies so seniors and others covered by Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA). The program uses a frame-
Medicare can take advantage of the latest technologies to get the work of integrated policies for the two Medicare payment tracks re-
quality care they need.” quired by MACRA: the Merit-based Incentive Payment System
Texas Medical Association President Douglas Curran, MD, said (MIPS) and advanced alternative payment models.
the association welcomes that approach. The Physician Fee Schedule and QPP are updated annually to cre-
“Physicians are among the most regulated professionals in the ate, update, or change program and payment policies, payment rates,
country,” Dr. Curran said. “The paperwork burdens and adminis- and other provisions that govern them.
trative hassles come between doctors and our patients, and are sig- Over the past two years, CMS published two separate rules for
nificant causes of the epidemic of physician burnout. That's why the Physician Fee Schedule and QPP, but this year it rolled both sets
TMA has repeatedly petitioned CMS to remove the yoke of unnec- into one massive 1,473-page proposed rule.
essary regulation.”
U.S. Rep. Michael Burgess, MD (R-Lewisville), chair of the House For more information visit www.texmed.org.
Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, agreed. "These
proposed changes seek to strengthen the critically important doc- To learn how you can get involved in this and other legislative ac-
tor-patient relationship by reducing unnecessary reporting burdens,” tivities contact Mary Nava, chief government affairs officer, at
Representative Burgess said. mary.nava@bcms.org.

10 San Antonio Medicine • August 2018