Posts Tagged ‘Value-Based Modifier’

Physician Supplemental QRUR: Episode-Specific Patient-Level Data Tells Story of High Utilizers

February 7th, 2017 by Patricia Donovan

QRUR reports provide a mirror into physicians’ cost and quality performance under MACRA.

As year one of MACRA unfolds, healthcare providers deterred by security hurdles associated with CMS Enterprise Portal access may want to reconsider. The wealth of aggregate quality and cost performance data available through the portal is well worth the trouble of accessing it, advises William Holding, consultant with PDA, Inc.

Specifically, Quality Resource and Utilization Reports (QRURs) downloadable from the portal are essential tools for physician practices that hope to succeed on MACRA-defined reimbursement paths, Holding said—even practices equipped with robust internal reporting systems.

“This is the same system that accountable care organizations (ACOs) use, and that CMS uses for many other things, so it’s a good idea to get past those barriers,” he explained during Physician MACRA Preparation: Using QRUR and Other CMS Data to Maximize Your Performance, a February 2017 webinar now available for replay.

Originally designed for CMS’s value-based modifier, QRURs are good indicators of future cost performance under MACRA, via either Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS), where most physician practices are expected to fall initially, or Alternate Payment Models (APMs), he said.

After providing an overview of MIPS and APMs, including five essential prerequisites to MACRA preparation, Holding delved into the quality and cost metrics contained in QRURs, from aggregate data in the main report to detailed tables rich with patient-specific information.

The main QRUR report illustrates where a physician practice falls in relation to other practices on the overall composite for cost and quality. The QRUR’s Quality portion shows scores for a series of domains, including effective clinical care and patient experience, which offer a great window into how a practice might perform with different selected measures in MIPS.

Next, QRUR cost performance indicates per capita costs for attributed beneficiaries, which will remain a cost measure in MIPS.

Drilling down, Holding characterized seven associated QRUR downloads—including one table on individual eligible professional performance on the 2015 PQRS Measures—as even more useful than the QRURs themselves.

And finally, he termed the downloadable supplemental QRUR “a very powerful tool” that drills down to the beneficiary level, providing a snapshot of some of the highest cost events occurring among a practice’s patients.

“For high utilizers, for specific episodes, you can drill right down to the patient to try and understand the story. What’s happening to your patient when they’re not in your practice, and what can you do about it?” said Holding.

Having presented the available reports, Holding described four key benefits of using QRUR downloads, including as a priority setting tool, and then detailed the myriad of ways QRURs can be analyzed to improve MIPS performance.

However, Holding stressed, even physician practices with the most sophisticated reporting structures will not thrive under MACRA without the right team or culture of provider support in place. He closed his presentation with a formula for determining investment in performance improvement activities and a five-step plan for MACRA preparation.

Listen to an interview with William Holding on the use of QRURs to determine a physician practice’s highest value referral pathways.

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Posted in Accountable Care Organizations, Affordable Care Act, Care Coordination, Healthcare Quality Reporting, Healthcare Utilization, MACRA, Physician Practices, Value-Based Reimbursement | Comments Off on Physician Supplemental QRUR: Episode-Specific Patient-Level Data Tells Story of High Utilizers

MACRAeconomics: Chronic Care Management Is the Future of Medicare Reimbursement

November 3rd, 2016 by Patricia Donovan

The newly finalized 2017 Physician Fee Schedule expands Chronic Care Management codes to complex patients with multiple chronic illnesses.

Managing a Medicare population, particularly when the majority has two or more chronic illnesses, can be daunting. But in the current realm of healthcare reimbursement, the care of these beneficiaries is rife with opportunity.

“Depending on the manner in which you’re managing your Medicare Part B demographic, you have an opportunity to generate from 100 to 120 percent of the Medicare fee schedule under MACRA,” noted Barry Allison, chief information officer, the Center for Primary Care, during Physician Chronic Care Management Reimbursement: Setting MACRA’s MIPS Path for 2017.

During this October 2016 webinar now available for replay, Allison described how early adoption of Medicare’s Chronic Care Management (CCM) Reimbursement program enhanced the Center’s MACRA-readiness under the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) path. By identifying the more than three-quarters of its 24,000 active Medicare beneficiaries that met CMS’s CCM requirements, the Center had a ready pool of patients on which to overlay CMS’s care coordination best practices and begin earning crucial CCM revenue.

“CMS recognizes that care management is a critical component of primary care. It contributes to better health and care for individuals, as well as reduced spending,” said Allison, who estimates his 40-provider organization is the largest chronic care management initiative in the Southeast.

Using the value-based modifier data available within CMS’s Quality Use and Resource Report (QRUR), The Center for Primary Care further identified its percentage of high-risk Medicare patients for more focused care management.

Accessing and reviewing QRUR reports, available from the CMS Enterprise Identity Management (EIDM) desk, is an essential prerequisite to MACRA participation, advised Allison, who also detailed the type of reports and data available from the QRUR. “Procure that data as soon as possible, because you can learn a lot about what CMS will be looking for in the future, and how the value-based modifier will actually become a part of that MACRA multi-pronged approach.”

While his organization’s CCM program utilized ENLI software to identify ‘hot-spotter’ data elements such as unfilled prescriptions or ER visits for specific conditions, physician practices that lack this technology still have many tools at their disposal—even appointment scheduling software—to identify high-risk patients.

“Open up consistent lines of dialogue and engage your providers. Sit down with them and say, ‘You know your patients better than anyone else. Tell us who to reach out to.'” With or without CCM software, practices should “document, document, document” the amount of time devoted to CCM, as well as how that time benefited patients.

Long-term planning rather than a reactive view will better position physician practices for success under MACRA’s Quality Payment Program, Allison concluded. The Center is already estimating how it will fare under Medicare’s newly finalized 2017 Physician Fee Schedule (PFS). Next year’s PFS significantly updates CCM, offering new codes for complex chronic care management and for extra care management furnished by a physician or practitioner following the initiating visit for patients with multiple chronic conditions.

“For us, CCM is not really focused on the near term revenue as much as it is about the long term action-reaction we can have in the patient’s life, and how our physicians are paid over the next three years.”

Click here for an interview with Barry Allison on the MACRA Prerequisite of Procuring QRUR Performance Data to Maximize MIPS Success.

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Posted in Care Coordination, Care Management, Chronic Care Management, Data Analytics, Diabetes Management, Electronic Health Records, MACRA, Medicare, Wellness/Prevention | Comments Off on MACRAeconomics: Chronic Care Management Is the Future of Medicare Reimbursement

Infographic: Countdown to the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System

April 18th, 2016 by Melanie Matthews

The Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) was created by the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 to streamline several of CMS’s value-based programs including Meaningful Use, Physician Quality Reporting and Value-Based Modifier.

An infographic by SA Ignite highlights the basics on MIPS including eligibility, scoring, financial impact, qualifications, and exemptions.

One year after the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services began reimbursing physician practices for chronic care management services, Bon Secours Medical Group is now comfortable with the CCM reimbursement requirements and is reporting that it’s unique approach to this revenue opportunity is ramping up nicely. And, the organization’s approach to chronic care management reimbursement is helping to position itself for advance care planning as a new billable CMS event in the upcoming year.

During Physician Reimbursement in 2016: Workflow Optimization for Chronic Care Management and Advance Care Planning, a January 26th webinar, now available for replay, Robert Fortini, PNP, chief clinical officer for Bon Secours Medical Group, will provide an inside look at his organization’s experience with CMS’ chronic care management reimbursement this year and how they are leveraging this experience for CMS’ newest billable event in 2016—advance care planning.

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Posted in Infographics, Meaningful Use, Value-Based Reimbursement | Comments Off on Infographic: Countdown to the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System