Dr. Pecora on How MACRA Needs Fine Tuning

Andrew L. Pecora, MD, president of the Physician Services Division and chief innovation officer at Hackensack Meridian Health, talked about the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) and other aspects of healthcare reform.

MACRA is a well-intentioned law, but it’s highly complex and it is designed to take the practice of medicine to another level. That’s all very well and good, says Pecora, but when you come down to it, how much time is there in the physician’s day to adapt to the many administrative duties that will be imposed upon his or her office as a result of this reform?

Doctors are lucky if they have enough time to sit down and enjoy lunch. Furthermore, patients show up at all hours with maladies that cannot wait. It’s the doctor’s duty to address those concerns first. The MACRA priorities don’t seem to reflect those types of concerns. Therefore, the fact that CMS is considering slowing down the program and taking some of the pressure off physicians is a good thing, Pecora says.