In a letter to Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), the American Medical Association and dozens of specialty groups and state medical societies offered their support to legislation sponsored by the Wyoming senator that would exempt continuing medical education (CME) activities from Sunshine Act reporting requirements. The groups urge prompt passage of the legislation, citing confusion around Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) rules and the effect those rules have on the publication of medical textbooks and peer-reviewed journals.
AMA and dozens of Medical groups offer support to barrasso bill exempting cme from open payments7/11/2016
The CME Coalition recently submitted comments to CMS to encourage the agency to include continuing medical education (CME) within the definition of clinical practice improvement activities (CPIA) under the new Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS). As the Coalition explains, "CME has long been recognized as an effective means by which physicians demonstrate engagement in continued professional development. Consistent with the intent of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA), CME encourages physicians to develop and maintain the knowledge, skills, and practice performance that leads to optimal patient outcomes. Simply put, without translating the new payment system into meaningful actions for physicians, the promise of MACRA will never be fully achieved."
Today, the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) submitted its comments to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) regarding the executive agency's recent proposed rulemaking on the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) outlined in the 2015 Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA). The ACCME's comments focus on the ways that the national CME system can support the implementation of MIPS and the improvements that the Council believes should be incorporated into a final rule.
On Thursday, June 16, the CME Coalition held a stakeholder webinar on the relevance of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) to CME and how to engage in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) comment process by the June 27 deadline. The webinar featured a presentation from Andrew Rosenberg, J.D., Senior Advisor, CME Coalition, and Thomas Sullivan, President and Founder of Rockpointe Corporation, a leading medical communications agency.
List of Acronyms Related to the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015
ABC™ – Achievable Benchmark of Care ACA – The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ACO – Accountable Care Organization APM – Alternative Payment Model BPCI – Bundled Payments for Care Improvement CAH – Critical Access Hospital CAHPS – Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems CEHRT – Certified EHR technology CFR – Code of Federal Regulations On May 3-4, 2016, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) hosted a two-day long Joint Meeting of the Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee (DSaRM) and the Anesthetic and Analgesic Drug Products Advisory Committee (AADPAC) to discuss results from assessments of the extended-release and long-acting (ER/LA) Opioid Analgesics REMS. The CME Coalition submitted public comments following the meeting, emphasizing that FDA should consider standardizing the REMS process, while allowing more flexibility in content. The Coalition also suggested that REMS should be expanded to include short acting opioids.
In a letter to Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY), the CME Coalition applauded the Senator for his recent introduction of legislation which appropriately exempts CME and certain educational materials from the reporting requirements of the Physician Payment Sunshine Act (Sunshine Act). As the Coalition writes to Sen. Barrsso, who is also a practicing physician, "While the Sunshine Act intended to make payments from commercial entities to physicians more transparent, we believe that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) has confused and misread Congressional intent, providing a mix of regulatory interpretations that have called into question whether independent, accredited CME activities could also be subject to the law’s reporting requirements... Your approach, which enjoys significant bipartisan support in the House of Representatives, and was overwhelmingly passed by that body as part of the “21st Century Cures” legislation, will help end much of the confusion among physicians and within the CME stakeholder community. We believe that your bill will reduce physician reluctance to participate in accredited CME by eliminating the “chilling effect” that exists today as a result of Open Payments reporting. We look forward to your bill’s consideration and passage by the full Senate. "
In April 2016, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released its proposed rule to implement the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA). This is a significant rule with fundamental changes for Medicare. Today, we look at the rule’s content related to the Merit-based Incentive Payment System.
As a refresher, the rule creates a two-track Quality Payment Program. The first is called the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) consolidates components of the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS), the Value-based Payment Modifier (VM), and the Medicare Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program. A second track involves alternative payment models (APM). Because of the high bar set to qualify for the APM track, CMS projects that only 30,000 to 90,000 clinicians will be in the APM track. An estimated 687,000 to 746,000 physicians will be in MIPS. The program will begin grading physicians in 2017 for changes in their payments starting 2019. You can learn more at one of the many CMS webinars listed here. On Wednesday, April 27, 2016 the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released its proposed regulation to implement the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA). The proposed rule creates a “Quality Payment Program” to replace old reporting programs. There two tracks, the first called the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and a second track involves alternative payment models (APM). MIPS is based on a 100 point score with clinical practice improvement activities (CPIA) representing 15 percent of the score. This is an area where CME should play an important role in helping CMS achieve its quality measure objectives. The proposed rule leaves great discretion to the Secretary of HHS to define what will be included in these activities. As stated in the rule’s preamble: “Clinical Practice Improvement Activity (CPIA) means an activity that relevant eligible clinician organizations and other relevant stakeholders identify as improving clinical practice or care delivery and that the Secretary determines, when effectively executed, is likely to result in improved outcomes.”
In this short video, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) provides a brief overview of delivery system reform and what it means for doctors going forward. The video covers previous efforts at reform and the legislation that spurred the Medicare Quality Payment Program before outlining the specific changes that the program intends to make. |