The two biggest MACRA mistakes to avoid in 2017

President Trump signed the Executive Order on Obamacare within hours of inauguration, heralding a time of great change in healthcare.

Yet even with the future of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) now uncertain, industry experts agree that the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) is at little risk of repeal. The legislation, which was originally sponsored by Republicans, was designed to reward the delivery of effective patient care and bend the cost curve by compensating providers for quality and outcomes, rather than simply the number of transactions performed.

Providers, faced with the political uncertainties as well as the perceived complexities of MACRA rules, are far from confident about the path to take to MACRA compliance. After all, this is a brand new payment system that the majority of physicians don't fully understand. As a result, providers have been slow to start preparing for MACRA measures. Many haven't taken any action at all, while others have begun by making major missteps that could be detrimental to physician productivity, physician satisfaction, and their bottom line.

Based on our conversations with healthcare leaders across the country, we've identified the two biggest MACRA mistakes— and more importantly, what providers should be doing instead.

Mistake #1: Not thinking like a physician - Many health systems are preparing for MACRA by implementing entirely new processes and technologies to ensure compliance. While that seems like a sound strategy, physicians don't have time to learn the ins-and-outs of yet another platform. They are already frustrated with existing administrative burdens that continue to decrease their direct patient care. Further, those new solutions and processes are rarely aligned with how physicians think and operate. For example, an EHR or clinical decision support system may offer quality measure alerts, but they're typically set up to notify physicians once patients have been discharged or before they are admitted – not at the point of care.

To make MACRA work, it's critical to build the requirements and intelligence into the clinician documentation process in a way that supports physicians' thought processes and workflows. Best practice is to prompt physicians with clinically relevant information and calls-to-action in real-time, at the point of care, within a single workspace.

Mistake #2: Not thinking like a patient - We've all been patients that have waited weeks or months, just for a short visit with our physician. We don't want our physicians to be distracted by frustrations with their EHR or other clinical documentation tools that they're forced to use on daily basis. We also don't want to spend our brief window with a physician watching them sift through all of the clinical noise in our medical records. To better serve patients and comply with MACRA, physicians need quicker access to critical data at the point of care, in a structured format.

Smart MACRA solutions stay inside the confines of the physician/patient interaction to provide the right information at the right time, eliminating the need to search and helping clinicians to comply with rules while also delivering the best patient care. The smartest solutions guide clinicians with prompts that help to streamline documentation, without shifting their attention away from their main focus: the patient.

The key takeaway is that MACRA doesn't have to be so daunting. By integrating MACRA measures into your existing EHR and documentation workflow, compliance becomes simple, easy and automated—which allows physicians do what they were trained to do, what they love to do, and what patients deserve: deliver the best care.

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