The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced that it has several “prevailing concerns” regarding the accuracy of the 2017 Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) scoring data that was used to set...more
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is proposing a redesign of incentives under the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) as part of the 2019 Updates to the Quality Payment Program (QPP). This affects...more
Last month, CMS Administrator Seema Verma announced several initiatives to innovate the delivery of patient care at the ground level. In collaboration with the Trump Administration and other federal agencies, CMS is taking...more
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently published two important guidance statements on so-called "information blocking," i.e., knowingly and willfully limiting or restricting the compatibility or...more
The Quality Payment Program (QPP) hardship exception application is now open for those providers seeking a score adjustment related to their use of electronic health records (EHR). Providers who meet certain criteria can...more
It is something of an understatement to note that the U.S. healthcare legal landscape is currently experiencing a degree of transition and uncertainty. There is no shortage of changes to discuss, debate, and, perhaps, grow...more
On Tuesday, June 20, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released a Proposed Rule to continue the rollout of the Quality Payment Program (QPP), an initiative to adjust Medicare payments to eligible clinicians...more
On May 31, 2017, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a $155 million settlement with eClinical Works (ECW), a nationally-known electronic health records (EHR) software vendor. The settlement arises out of a lawsuit,...more
If you are a physician, mid-level provider, or work with those providers, then you have been bombarded with new acronyms for new programs and promises to remove older acronyms from your Medicare vocabulary. Medicare...more
MACRA (the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015) is bi-partisan legislation that was enacted to change Medicare reimbursement from being based on the current system of volume of services provided to...more
Many observers view the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) as a game changer for the delivery and payment of health care services. On Oct. 14, 2016 the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services...more
On the heels of the release of its final rule implementing the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA), the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released its 2017 list of Advanced Alternative Payment...more
On Oct. 14, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published a final rule with comment period implementing the bipartisan Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA). The nearly 2,400 pages of...more
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) on Oct. 14, 2016, released the highly anticipated Final Rule implementing the Medicare physician payment reforms enacted as part of the Medicare Access and CHIP...more
After receiving roughly 4,000 comments to its proposed rule, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on October 14, 2016 released its final rule for implementing the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act...more
Last year President Obama signed into law the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 ("MACRA"). MACRA implemented significant changes in how Medicare reimburses doctors. In particular, MACRA (i) ended the...more
Significant changes to the Medicare payment system are underway. The Medicare Access & CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) is set to take effect January 1, 2017. MACRA represents a deliberate departure by the...more
On September 8, 2016, CMS announced in a blogpost that new physician payment model reforms, established in the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA), will begin implementation on January 1, 2017, as...more
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released on April 27, 2016, the highly anticipated proposed rule to implement major Medicare physician payment reform provisions included in the Medicare Access and CHIP...more
On April 27, 2016, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) posted a pre-publication version of a proposed rule implementing changes to Medicare payment for physician services authorized under the bipartisan...more
On January 11, 2016, CMS Administrator Andy Slavitt announced that the Medicare Electronic Health Record Incentive Program will be replaced significantly in 2017 by the new Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) for...more
On October 6, 2015, CMS released the final Stage 3 Meaningful Use Rule that, among other provisions, sets forth the requirements that eligible professionals (EPs), eligible hospitals, and critical access hospitals (CAHs) must...more
On September 28, 2015, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published a Request for Information (RFI) seeking stakeholder comments related to innovative physician payment models required by the Medicare Access...more