Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA)

The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 is a federal law that changed how doctors who treat Medicare patients are paid by Medicare. It’s sometimes called the “Permanent Doc Fix” as a result. It also removed Social Security numbers from Medicare cards to prevent identity theft.

Terry Turner, writer and researcher for RetireGuide
  • Written by
    Terry Turner

    Terry Turner

    Senior Financial Writer and Financial Wellness Facilitator

    Terry Turner has more than 35 years of journalism experience, including covering benefits, spending and congressional action on federal programs such as Social Security and Medicare. He is a Certified Financial Wellness Facilitator through the National Wellness Institute and the Foundation for Financial Wellness and a member of the Association for Financial Counseling & Planning Education (AFCPE®).

    Read More
  • Edited By
    Matt Mauney
    Matt Mauney, Senior Editor for RetireGuide

    Matt Mauney

    Financial Editor

    Matt Mauney is an award-winning journalist, editor, writer and content strategist with more than 15 years of professional experience working for nationally recognized newspapers and digital brands. He has contributed content for ChicagoTribune.com, LATimes.com, The Hill and the American Cancer Society, and he was part of the Orlando Sentinel digital staff that was named a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2017.

    Read More
  • Reviewed By
    Brian Hickey, CLU®, CLTC®, FLMI
    Brian Hickey

    Brian Hickey, CLU®, CLTC®, FLMI

    Vice President of Insuractive

    Brian Hickey is vice president of Insuractive, an Omaha-based company providing direct-to-consumer Medicare plans, life insurance and wealth protection to individuals. With 24 years’ experiencein Medicare, long-term care, life insurance and wealth protection, Brian leads and develops Insuractive’s strategic initiatives with a focus on direct-to-consumeroptions for insurance information and solutions.

    Read More
  • Published: February 22, 2021
  • Updated: May 8, 2023
  • 3 min read time
  • This page features 9 Cited Research Articles
Fact Checked
Fact Checked

A licensed insurance professional reviewed this page for accuracy and compliance with the CMS Medicare Communications and Marketing Guidelines (MCMGs) and Medicare Advantage (MA/MAPD) and/or Medicare Prescription Drug Plans (PDP) carriers’ guidelines.

Cite Us
How to Cite RetireGuide.com's Article

APA Turner, T. (2023, May 8). Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA). RetireGuide.com. Retrieved September 20, 2023, from https://www.retireguide.com/medicare/basics/history/macra/

MLA Turner, Terry. "Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA)." RetireGuide.com, 8 May 2023, https://www.retireguide.com/medicare/basics/history/macra/.

Chicago Turner, Terry. "Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA)." RetireGuide.com. Last modified May 8, 2023. https://www.retireguide.com/medicare/basics/history/macra/.

Why Trust RetireGuide.com
Why You Can Trust Us

Content created by RetireGuide and sponsored by our partners.

Key Principles

RetireGuide’s mission is to provide seniors with resources that will help them reach important financial decisions that affect their retirement. Our goal is to arm our readers with knowledge that will lead to a healthy and financially sound retirement.

We’re dedicated to providing thoroughly researched Medicare information that guides you toward making the best possible health decisions for you and your family.

RetireGuide LLC has partnerships with Senior Market Sales (SMS) and GoHealth.

Our partners are able to be reached through the phone numbers and/or forms provided on our website.

The content and tools created by RetireGuide adhere to strict Medicare and editorial guidelines to ensure quality and transparency.

Editorial Independence

While the experts from our partners are available to help you navigate various Medicare plans, RetireGuide retains complete editorial control over the information it publishes.

We operate independently from our partners, which allows the award-winning RetireGuide team to provide you with unbiased information.

Visitors can trust our inflexibility regarding our editorial autonomy. We do not allow our partnership to influence RetireGuide’s editorial content whatsoever.

What Is MACRA?

The main goal of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) has been to improve care for Medicare beneficiaries by rewarding health care practices that improve care while reducing costs.

It attempts to achieve these goals through several actions.

Highlights of MACRA
  • Repealed the Sustainable Growth Rate formula — which had determined payments to doctors prior to MACRA.
  • Created the Quality Payment Program (QPP) at the heart of rewarding health care providers for quality of care instead of volume of treatments.
  • Streamlined multiple programs under the Merit Based Incentive Payments System (MIPS) to reform payments to clinicians.
  • Gave bonus payments for participating in eligible Advanced Alternative Payment Models (APMs) to incentivize efforts to achieve MACRA goals.

MACRA and the Sustainable Growth Rate Repeal

By repealing the Sustainable Growth Rate formula and replacing it with the Quality Payment Program, MACRA is credited with stopping a potential exodus of health care providers from Medicare.

Prior to MACRA, Medicare relied on the Sustainable Growth Rate formula to determine how much to pay health care providers. The formula was supposed to control rising health care costs to Medicare.

The formula had to be adjusted each year and was becoming increasingly unpopular with doctors. It limited payments to doctors without considering the type, complexity and amount of health care provided.

The formula called for a more than 29% cut in payments to doctors in 2012. This led to an increasing number of doctors simply refusing to accept Medicare.

A Texas Medical Association survey in 2011 found that 8% of doctors in that state had already stopped taking new Medicare patients. Another 22% planned to stop and 415 were considering whether or not to stop accepting new Medicare patients.

The Sustainable Growth Rate formula gave doctors incentives to schedule more visits, order more tests and perform more procedures for Medicare patients. MACRA shifted that incentive toward improving the quality of care and cutting overall costs by offering bonuses to health care providers that met that balance.

How Does the Quality Payment Program Work?

The Quality Payment Program is an incentive program at the core of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act. This is the mechanism that changed and simplified how Medicare pays health care providers for the care they provide.

Health care providers have two options for taking part in the Quality Payment Program: The Merit Based Incentive Payments System (MIPS) and Advanced Alternative Payment Models (APMs).

MIPS vs. APMs
Merit Based Incentive Payments System
MIPS is a system that determines a health care provider's Medicare payment adjustment. The system uses a composite score based on the clinician’s performance to determine whether the provider receives a payment bonus, a penalty or no payment adjustment aside from what Medicare has already paid.
Advanced Alternative Payment Models
APMs provide added incentive payments for providing quality and cost-efficient care. Health care providers who take part in advanced APMs can earn Medicare incentive payments of 5% for taking part in a participating innovative payment model. An Accountable Care Organization is an example of an APM.

MACRA, Your Medicare Card and Identity Theft Protection

MACRA mainly affected the payment relationship between Medicare and health care providers. People on Medicare should have noticed few if any changes aside from one: MACRA also required Medicare to remove Social Security numbers from all Medicare cards.

This move was intended to improve security for Medicare beneficiaries.

Medicare replaced all affected cards by mid-January 2019. The new cards, and every card issued since the change took effect, now use randomly generated letter and number combinations called Medicare Beneficiary Identifiers, or just Medicare numbers.

Sample image of Medicare card
MACRA ordered Medicare to replace Social Security numbers on Medicare cards with new, randomly generated Medicare numbers.

The intent of the law was to keep beneficiaries’ private health care and information along with their federal benefit and service payment information safe from identity theft.

Last Modified: May 8, 2023

9 Cited Research Articles

  1. U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. (2020, March 23). What’s the Quality Payment Program? Retrieved from https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Payment-Program/Quality-Payment-Program
  2. U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. (2019, November 18). MACRA. Retrieved from https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments/Value-Based-Programs/MACRA-MIPS-and-APMs/MACRA-MIPS-and-APMs
  3. Gruessner, V. (2016, September 23). How MACRA Resolves Sustainable Growth Rate Formula Challenges. Retrieved from https://healthpayerintelligence.com/news/how-macra-solves-challenges-of-sustainable-growth-rate-formula
  4. Parks, T. (2016, March 6). Why MACRA Matters for Your Practice. Retrieved from https://www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/medicare-medicaid/why-macra-matters-your-practice
  5. Network for Regional Healthcare Improvement. (n.d.). Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA). Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20220518231949/https://www.nrhi.org/macra/
  6. American Academy of Family Physicians. (n.d.). The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA). Retrieved from https://www.aafp.org/family-physician/practice-and-career/getting-paid/macra.html?cmpid=Macra_pe_pa_na_qr_fmx
  7. HealthIT.gov. (n.d.). MACRA. Retrieved from https://www.healthit.gov/topic/meaningful-use-and-macra/macra
  8. EHR Intelligence. (n.d.). What Is MACRA and What It Means to Providers, EHR Technology. Retrieved from https://ehrintelligence.com/features/what-is-macra-and-what-it-means-to-providers-ehr-technology
  9. Primary Care Collaborative. (n.d.). The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) – the Proposed Quality Payment Program. Retrieved from https://www.pcpcc.org/topic/medicare-access-and-chip-reauthorization-act-macra