8 Ways to Know if You Should Participate in the Quality Payment Program By Jack Cheevers, Public Information Officer, Region 9, U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services You may have heard that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is reviewing claims and letting practices know which clinicians should take part in the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS). MIPS is an important part of the new Quality Payment Program. The Quality Payment Program works to make Medicare better by keeping patients at the center of healthcare while paying clinicians based on their performance. It replaces the Sustainable Growth Rate formula, which threatened ... May 9, 2017 CMS, Quality Reporting APM, CMS, MIPS, Quality Payment Program 0 0 Comment Read More »
CMS’ Open Payments Posts Full Year of 2014 Financial Data Financial Transactions Between Doctors and Medical Manufacturers Total $6.49 Billion — June 30, 2015 By the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) today published 2014 Open Payments data about transfers of value by drug and medical device makers to healthcare providers. The data includes information about 11.4 million financial transactions attributed to over 600,000 physicians and more than 1,100 teaching hospitals, totaling $6.49 billion. Acting CMS Administrator Andy Slavitt said, “Consumer access to information is a key component of delivery system reform and making the ... June 30, 2015 CMS, Medi-Cal, Medicare, Sunshine Act Open Payments, Sunshine Act 0 0 Comment Read More »
AMA News Release on CMS's Open Payments Data Release Click Here for a Link to the Open Payments Physician Payment Dataset and Other Background FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 30, 2014 AMA Statement on Sunshine Act Data Release Statement attributed to: Robert M. Wah, MD President, American Medical Association “The American Medical Association (AMA) is committed to transparency and the availability of information for patients to make informed decisions about their medical care, which is why we supported the Sunshine Act. “While we appreciate the efforts of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to verify the identification of physicians in each report from industry and ... October 2, 2014 CMS Open Payments Data, Sunshine Act 0 0 Comment Read More »
AMA's Open Payments Data Media Guide and Physician Talking Points Click here to access the media guide AMA distributed to reporters on September 29, 2014. Click here to access customizable talking points for physicians to use in responding to inquires about the Open Payments data. The underlying message of both documents is that the Open Payments data must be explained and contextualized in order to help people make informed judgments about the value of physician / industry relationships. Additionally, physicians may want to consult two recently published AMA Wire stories: Three ... October 2, 2014 CMS Open Payments Data, Sunshine Act 0 0 Comment Read More »
CMA Responds to Release of Medicare Part B Payment Data California Medical Association Responds to Release of Medicare Part B Payment Data — April 9, 2014 Sacramento — Richard Thorp, MD, president of the California Medical Association (CMA), issued the following statement in response to Medicare Part B payment data released today by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). “CMA joins our partners in organized medicine, including the American Medical Association (AMA), in our commitment to transparency, and, to that end, we support any release of data that will help to improve patient safety and quality of care. “Our concern with ... April 10, 2014 CMS, Medicare Medicare 0 0 Comment Read More »
CMS Publishes 2014 Medicare Fee Schedule From CMA's December 16, 2013, CMA Alert On November 27, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released the 1,369-page 2014 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule final rule, which was published in the December 10 Federal Register. Most provisions take effect January 1, 2014, although a few issues are open for public comment by January 27, 2014. The American Medical Association (AMA) has published a summary of the final rule. Below are a few key points: Although the final rule contains the 23.7 percent physician payment cut ... December 18, 2013 CMS, Medicare, Physician Fee Schedule CMS, Medicare, Physician Fee Schedule 0 0 Comment Read More »
Voluntary Submission of the New CMS 1500 Claim Form Begins in January From CMA's December 16, 2013, CMA Alert The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approved the revised Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) 1500 claim form, version 02/12, OMB control number 0938-1197. The CMS 1500 claim form is the required format for submitting paper claims to Medicare. The revised form, among other changes, adds the following functionality: Indicators for differentiating between ICD-9 and ICD-10 diagnosis codes. Expansion of the number of possible diagnosis codes to 12. Qualifiers to identify ... December 18, 2013 CMS CMS 1500 Claim Form 0 0 Comment Read More »