Source: American Academy of Family Physicians Washington, DC, Office
On July 13, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the 2018 proposed Medicare Physician Fee Schedule, as well as a related press release and fact sheet. The American Academy of Family Physicians issued a media statement recognizing that CMS included several AAFP-recommended administrative simplification provisions. If finalized, these provisions will significantly reduce the burden of primary care practices when participating in the Medicare program.
- Overhaul and modernize evaluation and management documentation guidelines
- Begin implementing site-neutral provisions to new off-campus provider-based departments
- Delay the Appropriate Use Criteria program for advanced diagnostic imaging services until Tuesday, January 1, 2019
- Lower the maximum amount of risk under the 2018 Value Modifier program from 4.0% to 1.0% for practices of fewer than 10 physicians
- Retroactively reduce the number of 2018 Physician Quality Reporting System measures from nine to six to further align with Merit-Based Incentive Payment System quality measure reporting requirements.
Despite these favorable proposals, the AAFP expressed disappointment that CMS failed again to achieve the required, minimum net expenditure reduction through identifying misvalued codes. Since these changes do not meet the misvalued code target required by law, physicians will not receive the full positive 0.5% update in 2018 called for under MACRA. The proposed 2018 Medicare conversion factor is estimated to be $35.9903, an increase of only $0.10 (0.31%) from the 2017 conversion factor of $35.8887.
The AAFP will continue to remind CMS to strengthen primary care to support the system-wide reforms taking place.
The AAFP created an executive summary of this proposed rule. The AAFP is currently analyzing the regulation’s impact on family physicians and will provide extensive feedback to CMS before their comment deadline of Monday, September 11. The agency is expected to issue the final version of this regulation in the fall.