Ready or not, the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) Quality Payment Program (QPP) and its associated financial incentives and penalties start next year. Unlike previous pay-for-performance programs, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has done away with “all or nothing” rules for earning payment adjustments with the QPP’s Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and Advanced Alternative Payment Models (APM).

The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) is a major piece of legislation that contains two value-based care programs that will affect nearly all physicians: the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and the Advanced Alternative Payment Models (APM).

Everyone has heard the buzz about MACRA, but it seems there may be more questions than answers as the new year approaches. Below are the answers to four of the most frequently asked questions about MACRA.

The 2,398-page final rule for the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) was released in October. In the wake of this new ruling, a survey conducted by Medscape found that nearly 30 percent of physicians had never heard of MACRA as recently as mid-September. This seems like a large number of physicians who are still in the dark, considering that the law could positively or negatively affect their Medicare reimbursements by as much as nine percent.

The proposed MACRA rule has created a lot of buzz - not all positive - in the healthcare IT industry as we approach the latter months of 2016. With a proposed start date of Jan. 1, 2017, many healthcare professionals are scrambling to get their heads around the impact MACRA will have on their practice.

In a somewhat troubling report, the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions 2016 Survey of U.S. Physicians found that only 50 percent of non-pediatric physicians have even heard of The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA). This survey comes shortly after the public comment period ended on the proposed MACRA law, which the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced earlier in the year. The final rule is expected to come this fall.

For the first time since the public comment period ended for the proposed MACRA rule, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Acting Administrator, Andy Slavitt, spoke about the potential changes in a testimony before the Senate Finance Committee on July 13, according to a report from HealthcareIT News. Slavitt disclosed a couple important themes that were present throughout the more than 3,000 public comments on MACRA.

On Wednesday, July 6, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced a proposal to change the length of the Meaningful Use reporting period for 2016 from a full calendar year to only 90 days. "These changes include a proposal for clinicians, hospitals and critical access hospitals to use a 90-day EHR reporting period in 2016—down from a full calendar year for returning participants,” CMS stated in its announcement. “This increases flexibility and lowers the reporting burden for hospital providers.”