Small practices worried about the shift to value-based payment plans must focus on data collection, according to an article in Medical Economics.
Better data collection is key to avoiding the penalties expected to accrue disproportionately to small practices due to the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA). Practices that can prove their value based on the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) will be able to maintain their independence, Dominic Gaziano, M.D., a solo internist from Chicago told the publication, but it will require hard work and planning.
Medical Economics offers some tips:
- Do your research. Docs may not love MACRA or MIPS, but they’re the key to understanding where a practice is and where it will need to change, says Jennifer Pfeifer, a former manager for a small practice in suburban Chicago. She advises physicians to check their Medicare Quality and Resource Use Reports to guide them in choosing reporting measures that will yield the best scores under MIPS.
- Get an electronic health record (EHR) system if you don’t already have one. No matter what measures practices choose to report, without an EHR in place, data collection and reporting will be practically impossible.
- Consider joining a network. For small practices looking to balance their clinical autonomy without breaking the bank on data collection and reporting technology, clinical networks or accountable care organizations may offer some relief, says Pfeifer, whose practice also ended up receiving performance bonuses from the accountable care organization with which it was affiliated.
- Take the time to develop efficient workflows. Sometimes a problematic EHR system simply stems from a practice’s failure to set it up properly, says Linda Delo, D.O., who owns a solo practice in Florida. She says it’s crucial that physicians take the time to customize the system to suit the needs of their staff, for example, by creating templates or reminders about critical quality metrics.
- here’s the article