CMS states all clinicians taking part in MIPS will know their status by the end of the month.
CMS states all clinicians taking part in MIPS will know their status by the end of the month.– All clinicians who will be required to participate in the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) will receive notification of their participation status by the end of May, CMS recently announced.
The federal agency is in the process of reviewing which clinicians are required to participate in MIPS as part of the Quality Payment Program under MACRA.
Physician practices will receive the letter from the Medicare Administrative Contractor responsible for processing their Medicare Part B claims. The letter will provide practices with the participation status of each MIPS clinician associated with their Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN.)
According to CMS, clinicians will be required to participate in the 2017 MIPS transition year if they meet the following criteria:
- Bill more than $30,000 in Medicare Part B allowed charges a year and
- Provide care for more than 100 Part B-enrolled Medicare beneficiaries a year
The Quality Payment Program is designed to promote a shift in the focus of healthcare delivery from a volume-based system to a value-based system in an effort to improve patient health outcomes and the overall quality of patient care.
“During this first year of the program, CMS is committed to working with you to streamline the process as much as possible,” stated CMS. “Our goal is to further reduce burdensome requirements so that you can deliver the best possible care to patients.”
With the program already underway, status letters are considered by many to be long overdue.
Clinicians have been expecting a participation status notification from the federal organization for some time. The Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) recently urged CMS to release status notification letters as soon as possible considering the information was initially due to clinicians in December of 2016.
Despite the status notification lag, CMS has made some effort to help mitigate confusion among eligible clinicians regarding MIPS participation, performance categories, and means of data submission.
Earlier this month, the federal organization offered a host of informative resources for eligible clinicians to work toward this end.
In addition to the forthcoming MIPS participation status letter, CMS also published three informative resources to guide eligible clinicians through 2017.
The MIPS participation factsheet provides an overview of who is required to participate in MIPS as well as the guidelines for voluntary participation. More specifically, the MIPS improvement activities fact sheet offers eligible clinicians insight into improvement activities requirements, objectives, and performance scoring methods to clear up any questions regarding the entirely new performance category.
Finally, CMS included a comprehensive and expanding list of CMS-approved qualified registries. The list offers eligible clinicians a way to view the contact information, supported performance categories, services offered, and cost of submitting MIPS data for each qualified registry authorized to provide services.