Increasing Physician Frustration with Lack of Models

Sept. 11—Physician groups say their members are increasingly frustrated by the lack of advanced alternative payment model (APM) options from which they can choose.

APMs will take on an increasingly important role for physicians who are paid though Medicare, with the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) dividing them between those in APMs and those who must meet complex quality-reporting requirements under the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) to avoid cuts of up to 9 percent of their overall Part B pay. Those who participate in APMs can instead garner a 5 percent bonus for five consecutive years.

But MACRA began this year, and relatively few qualifying APMs are available. That situation continued September with the decision by Tom Price, MD, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to not move forward with several proposed physician-focused models.