The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced an extension of the comment period for the Request for Information for the Medicare Access and CHIP Reathorization Act of 2015 (MACRA). The new deadline is November 17, 2015.

Great news!

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has given us (that’s you) more time to respond to their Request for Information to help create the rules and detailed infrastructure of the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and related programs.

CMS has shown in the past that they will take into account your opinions and well-reasoned responses. The due date has been extended more than 2 weeks and is now November 17, 2015. See the notice from CMS below.

Let them know what you think will work and what you think will not work. The rules under consideration will determine your CMS reimbursement levels starting in the 2019 payment year.

I recently gave a webinar called “What We Know About MIPS,” including my own thoughts on this Request for Information. I invite you to view the recording and the slides. You can also download a consolidated version of the questions here.

Here is the announcement from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services:

Request for Information Issued for the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA): Now Accepting Comments Through November 17, 2015The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced yesterday an extension to the comment period for the Request for Information (RFI) for the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA). The comment period, which was originally 30 days and scheduled to close on November 2, 2015, will now close on November 17, 2015.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced yesterday an extension to the comment period for the Request for Information (RFI) for the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA). The comment period, which was originally 30 days and scheduled to close on November 2, 2015, will now close on November 17, 2015.

As a reminder, this RFI seeks public comment on Section 101 of MACRA, which is subject to notice and comment rulemaking. Section 101 repeals the Medicare Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) methodology for updates to the Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) and implements scheduled PFS updates, including a higher update rate for “qualifying participants in Alternative Payment Models (APMs)” beginning in 2026.

Section 101 also adds the new Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) for eligible professionals (EPs), sunsets payment adjustments under the current Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS), the Value-Based Payment Modifier (VM), and the Medicare Electronic Health Record (EHR) Incentive Program, often referred to as the Meaningful Use (MU) program, and consolidates aspects of those programs into the new MIPS.

In addition, Section 101 of the MACRA promotes the development of APMs by providing incentive payments for certain EPs who participate in APMs and by encouraging the creation of additional Physician-Focused Payment Models (PFPMs).

• The Request for Information and instructions about how to respond are available at https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2015-24906.pdf
• The complete Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 can be viewed at https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/2/text
• Request for Information extension (PDF) available at Federal Register: https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2015-26568.pdf

Source: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) Listserv

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