Kristin Held, MD, penned a column for the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons calling for CMS to repeal value-based care.
Here are five insights:
1. Dr. Held argues the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 and the Merit-based Incentive Payment System overexerted the federal government's control concerning patient care and the physician-patient relationship.
2. She said, "The state's goal is to drive physician behavior…. Government seeks to move physicians away from a fee-for-service payment model and into alternative payment models that are claimed to reward what government perceives as value-based care and that require ‘providers’ to assume significant financial risk."
3. She argues this move aligns physicians to serve the government instead of the patient.
4. Dr. Held took particular issue with the advancing care information performance category. She claimed physicians are required to fully disclose all medical information including demographics, medical history, medications and genetic information to receive a score in the category. She believes the government will use the data to dictate the future of American medical care.
5. To support that claim, she pointed to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's and the Internal Revenue Service's data collection efforts. She doesn't "[expect] better behavior by agencies within [HHS]," and wants MIPS and MACRA to be repealed.