President Obama signed into law the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) on April 16, 2015. It passed with a 392 to 37 vote in the House of Representatives, and a 92 to 8 vote in the Senate. That bipartisanship indicates the legislative support for MACRA and the significance of the bill in U.S. healthcare reform.
MACRA replaces the current Medicare reimbursement schedule with a new pay-for-performance program that’s focused on quality, value, and accountability. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) stated that MACRA enacts a new payment framework that rewards healthcare providers for giving better care instead of more service.
MACRA combines parts of the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS), Value-based Payment Modifier(VBM), and the Medicare Electronic Health Record (EHR) incentive program into one single program called the Merit-based Incentive Payment System, or “MIPS”.
Additional information on MACRA and MIPS can be found on the CMS website. https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments/Value-Based-Programs/MACRA-MIPS-and-APMs/MACRA-MIPS-and-APMs
