A bipartisan bill introduced this week would provide relief for small physician groups navigating the Quality Payment Program.

Members of the U.S. House and Senate introduced the Small Practice, Underserved, and Rural Support Program Extension Act of 2022 on Wednesday. It would reauthorize a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services technical assistance initiative, set to expire on Feb. 15.

The program helps practices with 15 or fewer providers to comply with potentially cumbersome requirements stipulated as part of the Merit-based Incentive Payment System.

“Small healthcare providers in rural and underserved areas don’t have the big administrative staffs to deal with complex Medicare reporting requirements,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, MD, R-La., said in a Feb. 2 announcement. “This legislation gives support to small practice docs so they can focus on providing the best quality care for their communities.”

Others sponsoring the bill included Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., along with Reps. Peter Welch, D-Vt., and Michael Burgess, R-Texas. The measure is also backed by several physician groups, such as the American Medical Association, MGMA and the American College of Physicians. Since the Small Practice, Underserved, and Rural Support Program started in 2017, it has supported an average of more than 107,000 providers annually.

“Payment reform programs are complex, and clinicians require supplemental resources and guidance to meet the substantial quality and cost containment aspirations of payment models,” provider groups wrote in a Feb. 1 letter to members of Congress. “The COVID-19 pandemic has further exacerbated this issue by restricting the availability of these clinicians to understand updates and changes to payment reform programs,” they added later.