On July 8th, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a proposed rule (which can be found here) for the Calendar Year (CY) 2016 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS). Provisions of the proposed rule include modifications to existing physician quality reporting programs including the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) and the Physician Value-Based Payment Modifier (Value Modifier). The proposed rule also begins transitioning these programs into the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) created by the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) to go into effect in 2018.
CMS will accept comments on the proposed rule until September 8th. The attached document summarizes several major provisions of the proposed rule.