Duke Researchers Urge Physician Leadership in Gastroenterology Payment Reform

In a practice management note published this week in the journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, a research team from Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy and the Division of Gastroenterology at the Duke University School of Medicine urges physicians to lead the development of alternative payment models in gastroenterology.

The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) of 2015 provides a 5% bonus payment for physicians who receive a significant part of their Medicare payments in an advanced alternative payment model (APM), which involves some downside financial risk. One of the biggest challenges in meeting this goal is the lack of available APMs going forward and the authors urge physicians to engage with and lead payment reform in gastroenterology as the Department of Health and Human Services works to meet its goal of having 50 percent of health care payments tied to APMs by the end of 2018.

The research team included Mark Japinga, Robert Saunders, Ziad Gellad and Mark McClellan.