Medicare Physician Pay Cuts Averted & SGR Scrapped; Medicare To Phase In Value-Based Reimbursements

On April 16, 2015, President Obama signed the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act, House Resolution (HR) 2, to revise how Medicare pays physicians. The legislation removes the Medicare sustainable growth rate (SGR) methodology from the determination of annual conversion factors in the formula for physician services. It phases in a new value-based alternative payment model (APM) and creates a Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) to modify the fee-for-service (FFS) system. The legislation also reauthorizes funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which was slated to expire on September 30, 2015.

If the legislation . . .