9 major takeaways from the 2018 MACRA proposed rule

It certainly was a busy few days in Washington for the healthcare sector last week. The Senate revealed the discussion draft of their healthcare reform plan, hoping to come to a vote sometime this week. But in case you missed it, the CMS unveiled another highly-anticipated federal document last week: the 2018 Quality Payment Program (QPP) proposed rule.

In 1,058 pages full of dense legislative language, the agency laid out the ground rules for the second year of MACRA, the rule QPP implements. At the rule's announcement, the CMS messaged it was allowing flexibility for the rule by proposing the exemption of small providers participating in the program. The agency believes the move will exclude about 134,000 clinicians from the program, adding to the already 800,000 clinicians exempted from MACRA's Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS).