Dear Secretary Price:
On behalf of the undersigned organizations, we are writing to request that you use your regulatory
authority to minimize the 2018 penalties to be imposed on physicians pursuant to the Value Modifier
(VM), Meaningful Use (MU) and Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) programs. Taken
together, these programs have the potential to reduce Medicare payment for the services provided by
some physicians by up to 9% in 2018 while increasing the payment provided to a select few by over 30%.
We provide our views and legal analysis to argue that both the broad reductions and windfall increases
that would result from application of the VM, MU, and PQRS programs as currently configured are not
defensible, and urge that you take quick action to minimize the potential redistributive impact of these
programs. Creating regulatory relief for physicians in these complicated reporting systems is not only
well within the purview of HHS, but also would also enable physicians to continue to deliver high quality
care without onerous, unfair, and illogical regulations getting between them and the patients they serve.
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