AMA Urges CMS to Reduce Administrative Burden on Physicians
The AMA recently submitted comments in response to the Centers for
Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) Request for Information on
"Reducing Administrative Burden to Put Patients Over Paperwork."
[from AMA Advocacy Update]
The AMA recently submitted comments in response to the Centers for
Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS) Request for Information on
"Reducing Administrative Burden to Put Patients Over Paperwork." The AMA
continues to support this initiative and the agency's goal of
alleviating the administrative burden federal programs place on
physician practices. The increasing amount of administrative
responsibility forced upon physicians adds unnecessary costs to
practices and the Medicare program—and also negatively impacts patient
care. The AMA argued that by reducing administrative burden, CMS can
support the patient-physician relationship and let physicians focus on
an individual patient's welfare and, more broadly, on protecting public
health.
The AMA made recommendations on a variety of topics including
addressing prior authorization, simplifying the Quality Payment Program
(QPP), eliminating observation status, reforming open payments,
streamlining appropriate use criteria and many more. Specifically, with
prior authorization, the AMA urged CMS to take a leadership role and
develop a comprehensive strategy to address concerns that includes all
areas of the AMA Prior Authorization Consensus Statement:
- Selective application of prior authorization (CMS should
continue the successful Targeted Probe and Educate program; the AMA
supports identification of outliers and education as needed.)
- Review/adjustment of services/drugs that require prior
authorization to eliminate low-value prior authorization (Applying prior
authorization to services with high approval rates is costly for plans
and providers.)
- Improved communication of prior authorization
requirements to patients and health care professionals (including CMS
encouraging plans to disclose the clinical basis for their prior
authorization requirements)
- Protections of patient continuity of care, particularly
when patients enroll in new plans or plans change prior authorization
requirements
- Automation to improve prior authorization transparency
and process efficiency while maintaining physician oversight of payer
access to electronic health record (EHR) data
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