AHA calls for additional flexibility in physician quality payment program

The AHA today urged the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to expand its proposed definition of advanced alternative payment models for the physician quality payment program. “We urge CMS to expand its definition of financial risk to include the investment risk borne by providers who participate in APMs, and to develop a method to capture and quantify such risk,” wrote AHA Executive Vice President Tom Nickels. “We also urge the agency to update existing models, such as the Bundled Payments for Care Initiative and the [Comprehensive Care for Joint Replacement Initiative], so that those models would qualify as advanced APMs.” Among other changes, AHA urged that the Merit-based Incentive Payment System allow hospital-based physicians to use their hospital’s performance on CMS hospital quality reporting and pay-for-performance programs; incorporate socioeconomic adjustment; and align its advancing care information performance category with the hospital meaningful use program. AHA also voiced support for a number of the rule’s proposed flexibilities, and urged the agency to monitor the field’s readiness and consider additional flexibility in the timeline and other requirements.