Sean MacStiofain said, “most revolutions are caused … by the stupidity and brutality of governments.” Regulation without legitimacy, predictability, and fairness always leads to backlash instead of compliance.
Here’s a prediction for you: If something is not done to stop MACRA implementation, more physicians will opt-out of Medicare and Medicaid than is fathomable.
Once DRexit begins, there will be no turning back.
The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) is destructive to the physician-patient relationship because it prevents physicians from prioritizing patient care. MACRA supporters like to point out this legislation was passed with bipartisan support; in reality, it was passed simultaneously with the repeal of the sustainable growth rate formula.
The sustainable growth rate formula was enacted through the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 and was designed by lawmakers to control Medicare expenditures. The SGR formula limited the annual increase in cost per Medicare beneficiary to the growth of the national economy. Under the SGR formula, if overall physician costs exceeded target expenditures, a reduction in payments would be triggered. Expenditures continued to climb, so Congress stepped in 17 times with short-term legislation (referred to as “doc fix”) to avert the payment reduction since 2002.
Enter stage left, MACRA, known as the “permanent doc fix,” which was passed concurrently with the sustainable growth rate formula repeal legislation. This was the original “repeal and replace.” MACRA established yet another new (and untested) method by which to pay doctors. MACRA is the largest scale reform on the American health care system since the Affordable Care Act in 2010, and the jury is still out how great (or not) that system is working for the American people.
Under MACRA, the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services was tasked with implementation of a Merit-Based Incentive (MIP) program which consolidated three useless incentive programs into one big colossal unworkable program for eligible physicians everywhere. The legislation also allows for Advanced Alternative Payment Models (APM), which shockingly, are not actually saving money on care.
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