“Patients Over Paperwork:” Medicare is reviewing regulations to reduce provider burden

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is reviewing regulations that mandate how doctors and other practitioners document the services they provide. The focus is on the following:

• Reducing unnecessary burden
• Increasing process efficiencies
• Improving the patient’s experience with their provider

CMS is beginning this process with evaluation and management services (office or outpatient visits). The goal is to increase the time providers spend with their patients and decrease the time spent documenting services. At the same time, CMS consistently seeks to reduce provider errors and unnecessary appeals.
CMS Administrator Seema Verma explained: “…we are moving the agency to focus on patients first. To do this, one of our top priorities is to ease the regulatory burden that is destroying the doctor-patient relationship. We want doctors to be able to deliver the best quality care to their patients.”
To see more information about the Patients Over Paperwork initiative, please visit the CMS website at https://www.cms.gov/About-CMS/story-page/patients-over-paperwork.html.
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