MIPS Blog

Improvement Activities (IA) is one of 4 categories under the MIPS program. This year many clinicians are choosing to attest to Improvement Activities, in addition to reporting another MIPS category, to ensure they reach the minimum threshold of 30 points to avoid any MIPS penalty. Attesting to IA is a simple process. In this article we provide an overview of the IA category and tips on how to identify activities most relevant to your practice.

The Quality Payment Program (QPP) Participation Status Tool allows clinicians to view their eligibility status for both the Merit-based Incentive Payment Program (MIPS) and the Alternative Payment Model (APM) program. Clinicians can enter their individual National Provider Identifier (NPI) into the tool to learn if they are required to report MIPS by performance year or if they are a Qualifying APM Participant (QP) or Partial QP. CMS recently updated the tool with information about clinicians’ APM status and is expected to update MIPS eligibility in November. MIPS eligible clinicians who do not report MIPS this year will receive an automatic 7% penalty on their Medicare Part B payments in 2021, so it is important to understand what their eligibility status means so they can protect their Medicare reimbursement.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has released its Final Rule for the Quality Payment Program (QPP), with several changes to MIPS in 2020 and future reporting years. The Final Rule continues to gradually increase the reporting requirements under the MIPS program. In this article we will highlight the most important changes you need to know for the 2020 performance year and how they could impact your bottom line. We will also cover how CMS plans to transform the program in 2021 to reduce your reporting burden.

Cost is the fourth performance category under the MIPS program and makes up 15% of your total MIPS score for 2019 (up from 10% in 2018 and 0% in 2017). This category will steadily increase to 30% by the year 2022 when it will have the same weight as Quality. If CMS is unable to calculate a Cost score for a clinician, the category will be reweighted to Quality. While clinicians can relatively quickly change their MIPS Quality score by tracking some specific outcomes (e.g., track smoking status and give cessation advice), Cost is more challenging. It is more complex with many different variables, so monitoring Cost becomes important as it contributes more towards your final MIPS score. MDinteractive can help you access your CMS performance feedback reports which will provide your Cost score from prior MIPS reporting years.  In this article we will explore the different cost measures, how they are scored and the potential impact on your practice.

The clock is ticking for clinicians and groups who want to report MIPS. MDinteractive can report all available registry and EHR MIPS Quality measures and is here to help, whether you have been collecting data throughout the year or are just getting started. In this article we explain how to choose your Quality measures, and the benefits of using a registry like MDinteractive. With less than 3 months to the end of the 2019 performance year, there’s still time to choose measures to report and start gathering data.

MIPS eligible clinicians, groups and virtual groups can now apply for the 2019 Promoting Interoperability (PI) Hardship Exception or the MIPS Program Extreme and Uncontrollable Circumstances Exception. Applications must be submitted to CMS by December 31, 2019. Exceptions will be available to those who meet certain criteria established by CMS. Those who qualify for automatic reweighting of PI reporting do not need to apply for this exception.

CMS has released the 2018 MIPS performance feedback. The feedback will include a clinician or group’s performance category scores, final MIPS score and payment adjustment information. Any upward, downward or neutral payment adjustment will apply to the clinician or group’s 2020 Medicare Part B payments for covered professional services. CMS is allowing a Targeted Review to be requested until September 30, 2019.

The 2019 MIPS performance period is in full swing. MIPS eligible clinicians and groups must achieve at least 30 MIPS points in 2019 to avoid any penalty. If they choose not to report, it’s an automatic 7% penalty against their 2021 Medicare Part B payments.  We have developed this MIPS Reporting Checklist to explain your reporting options and help you plan your strategy for participating in MIPS this year.

CMS has revamped the MIPS Promoting Interoperability (PI) category for the 2019 performance year, focusing more on interoperability and patient access to their health information. Beginning this year, 2015 Edition Certified Electronic Health Record Technology (CEHRT) is required to attest to the PI category. Additionally, the PI measures have been modified and MIPS eligible clinicians and groups will be scored solely on their performance on the measures. Making sense of all of the requirements can be challenging, so in this blog we will examine the major changes and how they could impact MIPS scores.

With another MIPS performance year behind us, it is not too early to start thinking about a reporting strategy to ensure MIPS success for 2019. This year CMS is providing new flexibility to report quality measures through multiple submission methods which can help improve MIPS scores and increase incentive payments. In this article we demonstrate how combining registry and EHR measures will help specific clinicians with their MIPS reporting. The strategy would not only boost their MIPS scores, but it would also increase their Medicare payments by thousands of dollars.