The Quality Payment Program (QPP) is the new physician payment system created by MACRA and is administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Because the QPP is new this year, the Medical Association of the State of Alabama and the AMA want to make sure physicians know what they have to do to participate and the QPP’s “Pick-Your-Pace” options for reporting. This is especially important for those physicians who have not participated in past Medicare reporting and programs and may be less knowledgeable about the steps they can take to avoid being penalized under the QPP.
The AMA and the Federation stressed to CMS the importance of establishing a transition period to QPP and, as a result, physicians only need to report on at least one quality measure for one patient during 2017 in order to avoid a payment penalty in 2019 under the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS).
A new short video developed by the AMA, “One patient, one measure, no penalty: How to avoid a Medicare payment penalty with basic reporting,” offers step-by-step instructions on how to report so physicians can avoid a negative 4 percent payment adjustment in 2019. On this website, ama-assn.org/qpp-reporting, there are also links to CMS’ quality measurement tools and an example of what a completed 1500 billing form looks like.