Resource Details

Relevance of the Medicare Access and Chip Reauthorization Act (MACRA) to Health Information Exchange (HIE)

An Issue Brief

Year Developed: 2018

Resource Type: Publication.

Primary Audience: Enabling Staff

Language(s): English

Developed by: HITEQ (See other resources developed by this organization).

Resource Summary: This document provides an overview of Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA), how HIE links to MACRA, and how health centers might be impacted. In this brief, we describe the relationship between new federal legislation regarding physician payment and the exchange of health information among organizations. For many years, Medicare has paid physicians on the basis of a resource-based relative value scale. This approach has led to increases in resource utilization and inappropriate care rather than rewarding physicians on the basis of quality of care and patient outcomes. It has resulted in steadily increasing physician fees, which the government attempted to control by implementing the Medicare sustainable growth rate (SGR). SGR slowed the increase and could even result in decreases in physician reimbursement. There has been a need to address these issues and to provide incentives which might lead to greater value to patients and fairer physician Medicare reimbursement. Download the brief below.

Resource Topic: Health Information Technology (HIT)/Data