Extreme and Uncontrollable Circumstances

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced it has reopened its reweighting request period for the 2020 MIPS performance year due to the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Clinicians, groups, virtual groups, and Alternative Payment Model (APM) Entities may request MIPS performance category reweighting for 2020 under the Extreme and Uncontrollable Circumstances (EUC) policy now through November 29, 2021, at 8 p.m. ET.  All clinicians should carefully review their final individual and group-level MIPS scores and payment adjustment information as some clinicians are receiving a penalty if their practice coded Medicare Part B claims in 2020.

MIPS eligible clinicians, groups and virtual groups can now apply for the 2020 Promoting Interoperability (PI) Hardship Exception or the MIPS Program Extreme and Uncontrollable Circumstances Exception. Applications must be submitted to CMS by December 31, 2020. 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.