CMS-Reducing Clinician Burden

CMS has been hard at work to address the burden placed on clinicians by federal health care regulations. Through our “Patients over Paperwork” initiative we are collecting feedback and updating policies in Medicare and Medicaid that are outdated, duplicative, or overly burdensome. Over the past year I have traveled the nation and met with clinicians, and the feedback I have heard has guided my efforts at the agency.

One key initiative that we have launched involves streamlining the measures that clinicians report; a recent Health Affairs study found that U.S. medical practices in four common specialties on average spend, per physician, a striking 15.1 hours per week and over $40,000 per year reporting quality metrics. The litany of regulations in healthcare contributes to the consolidation we’re seeing in the system. According to a survey by the American Medical Association, the percent of clinicians with ownership status in their practice declined from 53 percent in 2012 to 47 percent in 2016, with younger physicians more than three times as likely as older physicians to be employed by hospitals.  READ MORE