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The Hand Surgery Landscape| Volume 47, ISSUE 9, P890-893, September 2022

The Hand Surgeon’s Practice and the Evolving Merit-Based Incentive Payment System

  • Jacqueline N. Byrd
    Affiliations
    Section of Plastic Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI

    Center for Health Outcomes and Policy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

    Department of Surgery, University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, Dallas, TX
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  • Kevin C. Chung
    Correspondence
    Corresponding author: Kevin C. Chung, MD, MS, Charles B.G. de Nancrede Professor of Surgery, Section of Plastic Surgery, Department of Surgery, Michigan Medicine, 2130 Taubman Center, SPC 5340, 1500 E. Medical Center Drive, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-5340.
    Affiliations
    Section of Plastic Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI
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      The Merit-Based Incentive Payment System began scoring physicians in 2017, with implementation of payment adjustments started in 2019. The program continues to evolve, with adjustments to measures, score weighting and consideration of patient complexity. However, there remain concerns about unintended consequences of this latest value-based payment program. This review summarizes the roll-out of the program in the first performance year (2017) and changes that will have an impact on payment adjustments in the 2022 performance year. Further, it explains the need for policy informed by clinical experience to protect access for vulnerable patients.

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