Bipartisan leaders from the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee today sent a letter to HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell regarding the bipartisan Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA). The letter stressed the importance of a successful implementation of MACRA so doctors and other health care providers can deliver the quality care their patients deserve.
The letter was sent by Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI), Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ), Energy and Commerce Committee Health Subcommittee Chairman Joseph Pitts (R-PA), Energy and Commerce Committee Health Subcommittee Ranking Member Gene Green (D-TX), Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-TX), and Ways and Means Ranking Member Sander Levin (D-MI), Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Chairman Pat Tiberi (R-OH), and Ways and Means Health Subcommittee Ranking Member Jim McDermott (D-WA).
“The Congressional intent for MACRA was twofold: to consolidate, streamline and ease the burden of the various quality reporting programs for physicians and practitioners and to incentivize quality, value-based care through aligned payment bonuses and reductions for physicians and practitioners," wrote Upton, Pallone, Pitts, Green, Brady, Levin, Tiberi, and McDermott. “With these principles, we urge the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to ensure that all physicians and practitioners have an equal opportunity to succeed under the Quality Payment Program."
The leaders requested that CMS consider the following flexibilities for all practitioners:
* Simplified, streamlined, coordinated requirements;
* Clear pathways to succeed in Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) or the Alternative Payment Model (APM) tracks;
* Opportunities to move to the APM track and flexibilities to be rewarded for meaningful delivery system reform activities in MIPS and in the APMs; and
* Appropriate systems ready and in place prior to January 2017 reporting.
