For Medicare's New Approach To Physician Payment, Big Questions Remain.

The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) established a new framework for Medicare physician payment. Designed to stabilize uncertain payment rates for Medicare's fee-for-service (FFS) system and incentivize physicians to move into new alternative payment systems, MACRA contains several uncertainties of its own. In a textbook illustration of why it's important to be careful what you wish for, it's increasingly easy to predict that implementation of MACRA will be delayed as a result of both regulatory and legislative breaches of its statutory timeline. This article traces the contemporary history of the Medicare physician payment system and efforts to implement additional changes. Project HOPE—The People-to-People Health Foundation, Inc.