MACRA’s Final Rule: Updates to CMS’s Quality Payment Program and its Impact on Medicare Part B Reimbursement - 1122616

MACRA’s Final Rule: Updates to CMS’s Quality Payment Program and its Impact on Medicare Part B Reimbursement - 1122616

November 8, 2016

Updates to CMS's Quality Payment Program and its Impact on Medicare Part B Reimbursement

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' (CMS) released the final Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) rule which makes sweeping reforms to payments under Medicare Part B and goes into effect on January 1, 2017. This one-hour webinar will discuss key changes to the final MACRA rule's Quality Payment Program and how it will impact behavioral health care providers.

MACRA’s Final Rule: Updates to CMS’s Quality Payment Program and its Impact on Medicare Part B Reimbursement

Tue, Nov 8, 2016 2:00 PM EST

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) released the final Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) rule, which makes sweeping reforms to payments under Medicare Part B and goes into effect on January 1, 2017. To learn about the MACRA final rule and how you and your organization can prepare for CMS’s Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS), we invite you to attend our webinar, MACRA’s Final Rule: Updates to CMS’s Quality Payment Program and its Impact on Medicare Part B Reimbursement .

This one-hour webinar will help you and your team:

• Understand key changes to the final MACRA rule’s Quality Payment Program and how it will impact behavioral health care providers
• Strategize to enhance your performance in 2017 and avoid financial penalties 

Featured Speakers:

• Elizabeth Arend, MPH, Quality Improvement Advisor, National Council for Behavioral Health
• Nina Marshall, MSW, Senior Director of Policy and Practice Improvement, National Council for Behavioral Health

With input from you, the National Council submitted comments when the proposed rule was released earlier this year. In order to reduce the burden on behavioral health providers in small, solo and rural practices, the National Council recommended that CMS increase the dollar threshold under which Medicare Part B clinicians would be exempt from reporting. The National Council expressed concern about the inefficient number of behavioral health-related MIPS quality measures, which would negative impact behavioral health providers’ quality performance score. The National Council also commented that the MIPS resource use performance category, which initially constituted 10 percent of clinicians’ total performance score, did not include clinical condition groupings or treatment episode-based measures that are applicable to the services or conditions for people with serious mental illness or addiction disorders.

The National Council is pleased that the final rule includes several positive changes in response to these comments. These changes will apply to the vast majority of eligible behavioral health providers when MACRA goes into effect on January 1, 2017.