NEW YORK, May 8, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- MACRA replaces the outdated sustainable growth rate formula in the transition from fee for service reimbursement. Black Book Research crowdsource-surveyed 8,845 physician practices from February through April 2017.

1. The Market for MIPS Compliance Technology is Booming

77% of physician practices with 3 or more clinicians seek to buy Merit-Based Incentive Payment System Compliance Technology Solutions by Q4. "Given the magnitude of the changes, the hunt is on for the best MIPS incentive enablement resources," said Doug Brown, Managing Partner of the survey organization Black Book Research. However, 92% of respondents were not aware of any branded technologies from vendors that support all MIPS registry measures for 2017 reporting besides their EHR.

89% said the primary reason for acquiring MIPS support software was not quality measurement, but because they can't decipher their MACRA earning potential.

"Finding one stop solutions shop for MIPS support is becoming easier with quality measure monitoring dashboards and enterprise analytics vendors," said Brown.

SPH Analytics scored highest in the survey of current MACRA supportive technologies in the Black Book poll of provider organizations currently collecting 2017 data sets. MIPS support technology users also identified Viewics, IBM Watson Health, Caradigm, Health Catalyst, SA Ignite, Care Cloud, Optum, Mingle Analytics, Equation Health (nThrive), Meridian Precision BI, Modernizing Medicine, DocsInk, Medeanalytics, Ingenious Med, Lightbeam, MIPSWizard and XCare in the survey process.

2. MACRA is Sparking Ambulatory EHR Optimization

83% of users of the top 8 EHR systems are upgrading or optimizing their systems for MIPS compliance.

EHRs can be a practice's strongest asset in collecting and submitting data. However, 72% of practices surveyed using EHR products not considered in the top 8 largest systems (Cerner, Epic, Allscripts, eClinicalWorks, NextGen, athenahealth, Practice Fusion, and GE Healthcare) stated they were not working with their vendor to ensure they were prepared for MIPS measures and can properly report the data.

Beginning in 2018, physicians must use EHR technology that is certified for 2015 and this requirement also burdens physicians utilizing small EHR vendors that have not been 2015 certified.

"The replacement market is heavily leaning to these largest 8 EHRs from small EHR vendors and expected to increase through 2018 as some providers had previously invested in EHRs that do not acclimate to agile change at scale like MACRA demands," said Brown. "EHR companies are not required by MACRA to update their technology so providers are ill-equipped should the practice stick with their uncertified EHR."

U.S. Healthcare Homepage