The American Academy of Family Physicians plans to create ready-to-use resources and dedicated learning sessions to prepare its family physicians for the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act, which is taking the place of the Medicare sustainable growth rate, according to AAFP News.
While many of the rules and regulations in MACRA are still being written, the AAFP has also committed itself to working with CMS to help create the soon-to-be-released proposed rule.
"Family physicians want to know the answers to questions for which we have no answers yet," Amy Mullins, MD, the AAFP's medical director for quality improvement told AAFP News.
"They want to know what certified patient-centered medical home means, what nominal risk means, and what the low-volume threshold will be. The AAFP wants to know, too. Family physicians are asking the right questions; we just don't have answers for them until the proposed rule is released later this spring," Dr. Mullins said, according to the report.
In the meantime, the AAFP provided four tips for family physicians to ready their practices for MACRA's two payment tracks for physicians: the Merit-Based Payment System and the Alternative Payment Model. These tips include:
- Understand how to report quality measures.
- Start reporting with the Physician Quality Reporting System.
- Review Quality Resource and Use Reports for your practice, as it will partially determine future payments in MIPS, the track Dr. Mullins expects most family physicians to start in.
- Evaluate your practice in terms of clinical practice improvement activities, such as care access, patient engagement and care coordination.
For more information on the MACRA payment reforms, visit AAFP's site or CMS' information page.
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