MACRA Categories and Codes in CMS Proposed Fee Schedule

In the 2018 proposed Medicare Fee Schedule rule, CMS reviews MACRA patient relationship categories and codes, their development and timelines, and provides details for the initial claims-based reporting of the relationship categories and codes to CMS.

Background

Section 101(f) of MACRA added a new subsection (r) to section 1848 of the Act entitled Collaborating with the Physician, Practitioner, and Other Stakeholder Communities to Improve Resource Use Measurement. Section 1848(r)(2) requires the development of care episode and patient condition groups plus group classification codes. To satisfy the purpose of patient and/or episode attribution to one or more clinicians, it further requires:

• The categories and codes must define and distinguish an applicable practitioner’s relationship to and responsibility for each patient when an item or service is furnished to the patient by that practitioner.
• The categories shall include different potential practitioner-patient relationship types.
• The categories shall reflect various potential responsibility types.
• The categories shall capture the frequency with which the practitioner delivers care to the

Patient Relationship Categories

CMS posted and solicited public comment upon a draft relationship categories list and the list’s foundational principles in April 2016. Potential category modifications were developed based upon comments received. In December 2016, CMS sought comments about such modifications and about operational approaches for reporting the categories on Medicare claims. After comment review, CMS posted the first operational list of patient relationship categories on May 17, 2017:

• Continuous/Broad Services,
• Continuous/Focused Services,
• Episodic/Broad Services,
• Episodic/Focused Services, and
• Only as Ordered by Another Clinician.

Patient Relationship Reporting Using Modifiers

Section 1848(r)(4) of the Act specifies that claims for services furnished beginning January 1, 2018, shall include, as determined appropriate by the Secretary, the following:

• Any applicable codes for care episode groups,
• Any applicable codes for patient condition groups,
• Any applicable codes for patient relationship categories, and
• The NPI of the ordering physician or applicable practitioner.

CMS describes having planned to use procedure code modifiers for patient relationship code reporting via claims. In December 2016, commenters indicated a preference for CPT modifier codes rather than HCPCS Level II modifiers. CMS submitted a CPT code application that was rejected in June 2017, as the CPT Editorial Panel preferred to wait until the proposed modifiers were finalized before issuing Category I CPT codes. CMS is therefore proposing HCPCS modifiers as shown in Table 26 reproduced from the proposed rule:

Proposed Patient Relations HCPCS Modifiers and Categories

CMS proposes that claims for services furnished beginning January 1, 2018, shall include the appropriate modifier selected from Table 26 and the NPI of the ordering practitioner. CMS proposes that modifier reporting will be voluntary. Modifier use would not be a condition of payment, affect payment, change the meaning of a reported procedure code(s), or be tied to any reported E/M service(s) intensity. The duration of the voluntary HCPCS modifier reporting period is not specified by CMS. Finally, CMS notes that the relationship codes may be incorporated into future QPP measures. CMS seeks comment on the proposed modifier list, the plan to resubmit the modifiers for CPT code assignments, and the initial voluntary reporting of the proposed modifiers.