June 13, 2024
The Honorable Brett Guthrie | The Honorable Anna Eshoo |
Chairman | Ranking Member |
House Committee on Energy and Commerce | House Committee on Energy and Commerce |
Subcommittee on Health | Subcommittee on Health |
2123 Rayburn House Office Building | 2123 Rayburn House Office Building |
Washington, DC 20510 | Washington, DC 20510 |
Re: MGMA Testimony for House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health’s Hearing, “Checking-In on CMMI: Assessing the Transition to Value-Based Care”
Dear Chairman Guthrie and Ranking Member Eshoo:
On behalf of our member medical group practices, the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) would like to thank the Subcommittee for holding this important hearing examining the state of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation Center (CMMI) and the transition to value-based care. Innovative value-based care models allow medical groups to provide cost-effective, quality-driven care. It is imperative that physician practices have feasible pathways to joining Alternative Payment Models (APMs) and are able to successfully sustain participation.
With a membership of more than 60,000 medical practice administrators, executives, and leaders, MGMA represents more than 15,000 medical group practices ranging from small private medical practices to large national health systems, representing more than 350,000 physicians. MGMA’s diverse membership uniquely situates us to offer the following policy recommendations.
The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) was enacted to repeal the flawed Sustainable Growth Rate (SGR) formula, stabilize payment rates to physicians in Medicare fee-for-service, and incentivize physicians’ transition to value-based care models. While there has been progress in the development of APMs under CMMI, more work needs to be done to effectively design and deploy these models so that more medical groups are able to participate.