Summary
Healthcare providers stress the importance of protecting patients’ data and enhancing their experiences in a healthcare setting. Several securing acts and legislations have been implemented in order to protect both patients and clinicians and further increase the quality of the provided care (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, 2015). One such legislation is the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA), which by initiating the Quality Payment Program determined fair payments to healthcare providers based on the quality of their services.
The Impact of MACRA
System Implementation
The key concept behind MACRA is an attempt to achieve value-based care over quantity-based care. To assess the efficiency of healthcare providers, it is highly important to understand the aspects of the quality of the services (Clough & McClellan, 2016). Furthermore, the computer systems work efficiently and store all information that would help determine the quality and efficiency of the provided care, and the subsequent payments.
Clinical Care & Workflow & Patient/Provider Interactions
The development of MACRA allows for a higher quality of healthcare provided to the patients. According to Casalino (2017), the creation of MACRA influenced healthcare providers to move from independent practices to corporations due to the system being successfully implemented specifically with corporate employment. Therefore, the act allows for more efficient and accessible health services to a larger number of patients.
Organizational Policies and Procedures
Specific procedures need to be applied to prepare for the implementation of MACRA. McGonigle et al. (2017) stress the importance of the use of technology in hospitals and clinics that allows for the correct processing and storage of the required information. Documentation is also crucial in executing the policy as it allows for the more accurate control of the relevant data that would eventually help determine the quality of the care provided.
References
Casalino, L. P. (2017). The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act and the corporate transformation of American medicine.Health Affairs, 36(5), 865–869. Web.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. (2015) MACRA: MIPS & APMs. Web.
Clough, J. D., & McClellan, M. (2016). Implementing MACRA: Implications for physicians and for physician leadership.JAMA, 315(22), 2397–2398. Web.
McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2017). Legislative aspects of nursing informatics: HITECH and HIPAA. In Nursing Informatics and the Foundation of Knowledge (4th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning. Kindle edition.
McGonigle, D., & Mastrian, K. G. (2017). Workflow and beyond meaningful use. In Nursing Informatics and the Foundation of Knowledge (4th ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning. Kindle edition.