In the last quarter of 2020, CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) announced the performance scores for clinicians of QPP MIPS 2019 on its official site.
Clinicians who participated may review their MIPS 2019 scores via a secure portal allotted to them. That along with your participation in MIPS 2020 reporting is going to add up to your revenue. God willing, you deserve every bit of it!
Ordinarily, the performance scores depict the percentage by which clinicians receive positive, negative, or neutral payment adjustments. However, for 2019, payment adjustments will be furnished in the year 2021. Once you have them, you are all set for incentives in 2022.
October 5, 2020, was the last date to check and challenge the MIPS 2019 performance score. During this period, individuals, groups, virtual groups, and even APM (Alternative Payment Model) participants can apply to review their score, if they disagree with it.
There was no special requirement to review data. With the same credentials, you submitted data, you could check the performance score.
And it is the best approach to check feedback. Due to the pandemic, CMS enforced a policy to not penalize any physician, who could not submit data in the previous year.
(If you submitted data through MIPS Qualified Registry, they can review feedback on your behalf.)
QPP MIPS is one of the incentive payment models with a goal. It accounts for quality healthcare services, that CMS recognizes and rewards for.
The performance review period allows seeing if your data is being reviewed properly or not.
Mostly, physicians who submit MIPS data through a MIPS Qualified Registry have an idea of their final score. Because registries like ours possess the right resources who follow a set roadmap to report quality measures, and in doing so, they can predict the scores.
Hence, QPP MIPS data submission through a qualified registry takes your stress away. You already become aware of your final score, and even strategize to maximize performance.
You can see the following situations while reviewing the MIPS performance score:
COVID-19 has overburdened the healthcare system beyond its handling capacity. Doctors do not have time to compile necessary data as per the CMS requirements.
In such tough times, CMS offers flexibility to ease out the administrative load. The option for applying for “the Extreme and Uncontrollable Conditions” was available until December 31, 2020. However, the deadline for MIPS 2020 submission still has some time left. If you are among the practices, that are eligible yet non-compliant, P3 may submit on your behalf. It protects you from a 9% penalty while brightening your chances towards 5% MIPS incentives.
AMA (American Medical Association) requested CMS to offer flexible QPP MIPS reporting options and other incentive payment models.
Eligible physicians can choose not to be scored against “Cost” and “Quality” measures. In such a case, CMS only analyzes their performance based on “Improvement Activities (IA)” and “Promoting Interoperability (PI)” MIPS performance categories.
CMS is working alongside AMA to address issues related to QPP MIPS data submission during the COVID-19 pandemic.
We, stakeholders of the healthcare industry, can expect improvement in the Medicare payments and flexible regulatory guidelines. Let’s see how it goes for MIPS 2020 and the upcoming years.
