The American Association of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS) submitted stakeholder comments to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) on its CY 2018 Updates to the Quality Payment Program for physician payments.

Click here to view the letter.

The comments focus on the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and Alternative Payment Model (APM) payment mechanisms found under MACRA.

In addition, the comments ask CMS to discontinue mandatory demonstrations for bundled payments and to introduce physician leadership into alternative payment models.

Per AAOS:

“We look forward to engaging with CMS, especially on developing outcome based measures for musculoskeletal care as well as on redesigning Medicare value-based payment models such that they are voluntary, physician-led, have accurate price setting, and provide access to data for all participants. Further, we would like to reemphasize that the guiding principle for CMS should be improving patient care. Thus, the QPP should be simplified and not made more complex with each passing year.”