I’ve had the chance to present the changes being brought by the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) to audiences of hundreds of physicians — at ACP’s Leadership Day on Capitol Hill, ACP’s Board of Governors and Board of Regents meetings, several educational sessions and a news briefing at the College’s Internal Medicine 2016 Scientific Meeting, and to the California Medical Association’s Leadership Academy. I’ve also had chats with dozens of physicians outside of these formal presentations.
Here’s what I have learned: Most physicians look at the “value-based” payment reforms being brought by MACRA with a degree of trepidation. They aren’t sure how to proceed, what measures will be used, whether they will be unfairly penalized for things outside of their control, and worried it will result in more administrative “hassles.” It is certainly true that MACRA will make significant changes in the way physicians are reimbursed by Medicare, and ACP is addressing such concerns, through our advocacy with CMS and Congress, by educating our members about MACRA and by helping them be prepared. For instance, ACP has developed a two-page explanation of the law, recommended 10 steps physicians can take right now, and developed implementation tools to help them.
Understandable anxiety and trepidation is one thing, but what worries me is that there is a growing undercurrent (just Google “MACRA will destroy private practice”) that implementation of the law will be a “sky-is-falling, end-of-medicine-as-we-know-it” type of disruption.
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