Call Your Congressman TODAY About the SGR Fix — What About Rural Health Clinics and FQHCs?
The “Doc Fix” is in play once more and looking to move toward approval. The attached document outlines how Congress intends to alter physician fee schedule payments, making 25% of physician payments variable based on cost and quality by 2020.
One of the key components of this legislation provides special incentives for clinicians who participate in Advanced Payment Models. “Professionals who receive a significant share of their revenues through an APM(s) that involves risk of financial losses and a quality measurement component will receive a five percent bonus each year from 2019-2024. A patient-centered medical home APM will be exempted from the downside financial risk requirement if proven to work in the Medicare population.”
Guess what? Providers that practice in RHCs and FQHCs (who are not paid under the Physician Fee Schedule) are not eligible for those five percent bonuses. This is a SUBSTANTIAL INCENTIVE that will leave rural providers behind in their costly efforts to transform their practices.
Call your congressman today and ask that the SGR Fix includes language that requires CMS to provide similar incentives for Rural Health Clinic and FQHC providers to join Advanced Payment Models.
March 23, 2015 Accountable Care Organization, Healthcare Grants and Funding, Payment Reform Read more >