Welcome to The ACP Advocate,
Check out today's first article about quality measures. ACP has urged CMS to scrap its existing flawed measures by replacing them with new, more meaningful and less burdensome measures. ACP has encouraged the development of measures that protect and support both physicians and patients while also providing useful information and feedback.
Today's second article looks at an effort by ACP, payers, consumer groups, and others to agree on a core set of measures rather than each payer having its own measures.
It examines how the increasing emphasis on quality-based health care has produced an array of widely varying benchmarks for physicians' performance, prompting complaints about the resulting confusion and conflict. However, the situation may be smoothing out, thanks to the collaborative effort from interested parties, including the American College of Physicians.
In our final article, read about plans for this year’s Leadership Day, set for May 3-4 at the Washington Convention Center. This year, it coincides with Internal Medicine 2016 and provides a great opportunity for IM 2016 attendees to get a good feeling for the College’s top issues and how you can advocate for them. A short video that captures what Leadership Day is all about is linked at the end of the article. I highly recommend watching it.
The first day of Leadership Day includes a series of briefings and workshops on issues of importance to internists. The second day focuses on meetings on Capitol Hill. Leadership Day is open to ACP members only.
In our March 25 issue, look for coverage of ACP's paper on Telemedicine. It’ll look at ACP’s ongoing effort to try to eliminate payment and regulatory barriers to telemedicine in ways that support the patient-physician relationship. We’ll highlight ACP’s recent analysis and engagement on telehealth reform legislation that was recently introduced in Congress, the Creating Opportunities Now for Necessary and Effective Care Technologies (CONNECT) For Health Act.
For more coverage of what's happening in Washington, take a look at my award-winning blog, The ACP Advocate Blog by Bob Doherty. You can also follow me on Twitter @BobDohertyACP.
As always, please send your feedback and suggestions on this newsletter to: TheACPAdvocate@acponline.org.
Yours truly,
Bob Doherty
Senior Vice President
Governmental Affairs and Public Policy
American College of Physicians
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| About this newsletter |
| The ACP Advocate is an e-newsletter, edited by the College's Washington, DC governmental affairs division, created to provide you, our members, with succinct news about public policy issues affecting internal medicine and patient care. To learn more about ACP's Advocacy and to access the ACP Advocate archives, go to www.acponline.org/advocacy. |
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| In focus |
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2016 Hardship Exemptions Extension |
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CMS is extending the application deadline for the Medicare EHR Incentive Program hardship exception process that reduces burden on clinicians, hospitals, and critical access hospitals (CAHs). The new deadline for Eligible Professionals, Eligible Hospitals and Critical Access Hospitals is July 1, 2016. CMS is extending the deadline so providers have sufficient time to submit their applications to avoid adjustments to their Medicare payments in 2017. |
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CMS Finalizes Changes To 2017 ACA Marketplace |
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The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued the final annual Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters for the 2017 coverage year, along with related guidance documents, as part of the ongoing efforts to promote healthy and stable markets that work for consumers and for insurers. To help stakeholders plan ahead, CMS also finalized the open enrollment period for future years. |
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Study Quantifies Resources Used on Quality Reporting |
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A study published in Health Affairs finds that US physician practices in four common specialties spend, on average, 785 hours per physician and more than $15.4 billion dealing with the reporting of quality measures. Primary care practices were found to have the highest average cost for quality reporting, underscoring concerns about the current system and the burden placed on physicians. |
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