The AMA recently asked Marilyn B. Tavenner, Administrator the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to “synchronize and simplify the requirements” to avoid penalties for the various overlapping Medicare incentive programs and to reverse its proposals to raise total penalties from these programs to 10 percent or more in the foreseeable future.

“These programs, with often incomprehensible, conflicting requirements and flawed implementation processes, are all entering their penalty phases and pose a risk to the stability of the Medicare program that many policymakers do not seem to appreciate,” wrote James L. Madara, MD, the AMA’s executive vice president and CEO to Tavenner.

Read the letter and see a chart outlining the overlapping penalties and how they might affect your practice as well as the AMA’s recommendations to improve the programs.