The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services is making updates to a popular Quality Payment Program amid “prevailing concerns” from the physician community.
CMS just recently released final scores and feedback on provider performance in the Merit-based Incentive Payment System. During the regular review period, clinicians alerted the agency about two errors as part of the process, according to an update posted Sept. 27.
As such, CMS is now correcting MIPS scoring, resulting in changes to providers’ performance feedback, which include 2020 final scores and 2022 payment adjustments.
“From the onset of QPP, our goals have included creating a program that is fully transparent and provides accurate information,” the agency said Monday. “We believe that the corrections identified below are essential to achieving that goal. We will continue to work closely with the clinician community to learn from one another and ensure operational excellence in implementation.”
CMS discovered that MIPs-eligible physicians participating in Medicare Shared Savings Program Accountable Care Organizations did not receive bonuses in their final scores for treating complex patients. To remedy this problem, the feds are granting up to 10 bonus points in their performance feedback and final tallies. Meanwhile, the agency also did not recognize patient-reported outcome measures properly and has now corrected the scoring logic, spelling updates for 30,000 MIPS-eligible providers.
Officials expect most to see a modest increase in their quality performance category score and final MIPS tally, but about 4,400 clinicals will see a decrease. The American College of Radiology highlighted the CMS update on Thursday, anticipating that most scores “likely have not been strongly affected by these changes.” However, it urged radiologists to review their results in the QPP portal. The deadline to submit a targeted review of 2020 MIPS scores has been extended to Nov. 29 following the changes.
Earlier in September, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services also created a MIPS exemption for physicians impacted by natural disasters.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.