The American Medical Association, American College of Radiology (ACR), Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI), Society of Interventional Radiology and dozens of other healthcare groups have signed a letter to CMS in support of the agency’s “Patients Over Paperwork” initiative and calling for a reduction in paperwork requirements for evaluation and management (E&M) services.
“Excessive E&M documentation requirements do not just take time away from patient care; they also make it more difficult to locate medical information in patients’ records that is necessary to provide high quality care,” the letter stated. “Physicians and other health care professionals are extremely frustrated by ‘note bloat,’ with pages and pages of redundant information that makes it difficult to quickly find important information about the patient’s present illness or most recent test results.”
The letter included praise for some of the policy changes included in the 2019 Medicare Physician Fee Schedule proposed rule, urging that they be adopted as soon as possible, while bringing up “a number of unanswered questions and potential unintended consequences” to some of the other suggested changes. For instance, the organizations that signed the letter said they oppose implementation of the proposal to “collapse payment rates for eight office visit services for new and established patients down to two each.”
“We oppose the implementation of this proposal because it could hurt physicians and other health care professionals in specialties that treat the sickest patients, as well as those who provide comprehensive primary care, ultimately jeopardizing patients’ access to care,” the letter stated. “We also urge that the new multiple service payment reduction policy in the proposed rule not be adopted as the issue of multiple services on the same day of service was factored into prior valuations of the affected codes.”
The groups also noted that they want to work with CMS on these issues.
More information from CMS on the “Patients Over Paperwork” initiative is available here.
Michael has more than 16 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.