On September 8, Andrew Slavitt, Acting Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), made a significant announcement on the CMS blog regarding the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) implementation timeline.According to CMS, providers will be allowed to "pick their pace" with respect to the Quality Payment Program (QPP) in the first year of MACRA implementation. Mr. Slavitt has outlined four proposed "pace" levels in which providers can enter the QPP.
The blog post is light on specifics; however, the way options 1 through 3 are described indicates that the financial penalties in the QPP may be substantially lessened in the first year of program implementation.
CMS is scheduled to release the final rule by November 1. We will provide more details on this change, and what it means for the market at that time.