Last week, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) acting Administrator Andy Slavitt addressed the annual meeting of the American Medical Association (AMA) about the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA) and how physicians are the driving force behind many changes coming to Medicare reimbursement.

“You represent one of America’s most potent and proudest forces of talent and ability,” Slavitt told physicians attending the 2016 annual meeting of the AMA House of Delegates in Chicago. There is an historic opportunity before us, he said, to change how Medicare pays for care.

Slavitt said that CMS is trying to reverse a “pattern of regulations and frustration and ultimately unleashing a new wave of collaboration between the people who spend their lives taking care of us and those of us whose job it is to support that cause.”

As the health care system transitions to a new care and payment delivery system under MACRA, physicians understandably have questions about how this process is going to work.

To help physicians get answers to their questions, the California Medical Association (CMA) is offering a free one-hour webinar on MACRA on Wednesday, July 13, at 12:15 p.m.

The webinar, “MACRA: What Is CMA Doing to Improve It? What Steps Can You Take to Prepare Now?” will provide a brief overview of the new MACRA payment changes, with an emphasis on what CMA is doing to improve MACRA regulations for physicians. This webinar will also discuss what physicians can do now to be ready for the major changes ahead.

This webinar is free to CMA members ($99 for non-members). Click here to register.

AMA also offers a number of resources to help physicians prepare for the coming payment policies, including:

• A summary of the proposed regulations


• 4 steps to prepare for Medicare’s new payment systems


• A guide to physician-focused payment models


• Key points of the Merit-based Incentive Payment System


• What you can do now to prepare