MACRA and Other Healthcare Reforms Cause Nearly Half of Physicians Surveyed to ‘Accelerate’ their Retirement Plans
Many pathologists and other physicians are accelerating their retirement plans as they become familiar with how MACRA, MIPS, and ADM will change the way the Medicare Program pays for physician professional services
Will Medicare’s make-over to how it pays physicians accelerate the retirement of more doctors—including pathologists? That’s the question many experts are asking as the nation’s physicians learn more about the rule to implement the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA), with its Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and Advanced Alternative Payment Model (APM) programs.
With the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) expected this fall to finalize changes in how physicians—including pathologists—get paid for Medicare services, it appears many physicians are considering retirement, rather than contend with Quality Payment Program (QPP) rules for a new value-based reimbursement system and other healthcare reforms.
The Physicians Foundation’s latest biennial survey, “2016 Survey of America’s Physicians: Practice Patterns and Perspectives,” indicated that 46.8% of physicians plan to “accelerate” their retirement plans due to changes taking place in healthcare. That number rises to 50% among doctors age 46 and older, and to 54.2% among physicians who own their own practices. (more…)