As a new administration takes office in Washington, physicians are faced with a conundrum.
A new Medicare payment system kicks in January 1, but the political upheaval has some doctors wondering if they should take a wait-and-see approach to the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA).
As President-elect Donald Trump and his administration promise huge changes in healthcare, many doctors question whether MACRA will change substantially or even go away, according to a Medscape report.
"Even if MACRA gets tweaked along the way, don't hold your breath waiting for it to go away or be delayed," the publication quoted Anne Phelps, a principal and U.S. healthcare regulatory leader at Deloitte & Touche LLP.
While the Republican leadership is vowing to repeal the Affordable Care Act, MACRA is a different story and had bipartisan support. The outgoing head of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Andrew Slavitt, last month predicted MACRA is here to stay and advised doctors to plow ahead with their preparations. And the leaders of the Medical Group Management Association’s government affairs team also said any change in Washington was not likely to change MACRA.
But some physicians aren’t ready to invest money, time and effort into a system that might change, according to Medscape.
The American Hospital Association has created numerous tools to help physicians and hospital leaders understand and navigate the new physician payment system. While doctors won’t see the impact of the new payments until 2019, they will be based on doctors and other clinician’s performance starting in 2017, according to a Hospitals & Healthcare Networks article.
The American Medical Association says physicians need to prepare for the changes now and also has created tools to get them ready, according to AMA Wire.