WEDI Issues Recommendations to CMS on Proposed Rule for MACRA and MIPS
RESTON, Va (PRWEB) June 28, 2016 -- WEDI, the nation’s leading authority on the use of health IT to create efficiencies in healthcare information exchange, announced the issuance of its Comment Letter on Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and Alternative Payment Model (APM) Incentive under the Physician Fee Schedule, and Criteria for Physician-Focused Payment Models. The Comment Letter was developed by the Payment Model Workgroup of WEDI in response to the April 27 proposed rule for MIPS and APM incentives, implementing the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA). The goal of these comments is to constructively engage with CMS to improve the implementation and sustainability of the MACRA-related activity by the industry.
“WEDI’s Payment Model Workgroup is very enthusiastic about the opportunity MACRA implementation presents to accomplish the goals of CMS, payers, eligible clinicians, technology vendors, and so many others,” said Charles W. Stellar, president and CEO of WEDI. “The use of incentives and enabling technology to improve quality and promote smart spending in healthcare is crucial as we all work to create significant advancement in value-based reimbursement.”
Key points relayed within the June 27, 2016 Comment Letter include:
1. WEDI supports advancing effective, efficient and secure interoperability of clinical and administrative healthcare information and encourages CMS, in the final rule, to adopt measures that achieve those broad goals.
2. The proposed rule outlines the process that eligible clinicians and groups would implement in order to submit data and performance measures for MIPS. CMS should ensure that the MIPS reporting process is simple to understand, conducive to automated reporting and clinically relevant. WEDI also supports the potential use of clinical data registries to report clinical data.
3. WEDI is concerned with the proposed timeline set forth for providers to implement MIPS. WEDI encourages the establishment of an appropriate implementation timeline that meets the need of program participants and their vendor partners.
4. WEDI recognizes and agrees that both health IT developers and health IT vendors will play a critical role in keeping with the spirit of the regulation.
5. WEDI encourages additional industry input in order to identify appropriate APMs to support the intent of the MACRA legislation.
6. WEDI encourages the standards developers to introduce accelerated cycle times for updating standards, especially new and modified standards required to support automation of quality reporting along with incorporating a degree of flexibility to accommodate the needs of a rapidly changing health IT landscape.
For full details of the letter in its entirety, see the full Comment Letter on the WEDI website. Additionally, WEDI plans to develop a future report regarding MIPS and APMs to assist impacted stakeholders in understanding these complex issues and concerns. For more information on the Payment Models Workgroup, please visit http://www.wedi.org/workgroups/payment-models.
About WEDI
The Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI) is the leading authority on the use of health IT to improve healthcare information exchange in order to enhance the quality of care, improve efficiency, and reduce costs of our nation’s healthcare system. WEDI was formed in 1991 by the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) and was designated in the 1996 HIPAA legislation as an advisor to HHS. WEDI’s membership includes a broad coalition of organizations, including: hospitals, providers, health plans, vendors, government agencies, consumers, not-for-profit organizations, and standards development organizations. To learn more, visit http://www.wedi.org and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
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Press contact information:
Jennifer Jennings
770-900-5456
Jennifer(at)andersoni.com
Dave Anderson, Anderson Interactive, on behalf of WEDI, +1 678-401-2991, [email protected]
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