CMS Releases Preliminary 2020 Performance Year Quality Payment Program Results

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has released the preliminary participation data for the 2020 Quality Payment Program (QPP). CMS released an infographic that summarized their findings. During the pandemic many clinicians had the opportunity to be exempt from participating in the program, but these findings show that many clinicians elected to participate. 

Other key findings include:

• 89.11% of MIPS-eligible clinicians engaged in QPP
• The mean score for MIPS-eligible clinicians rose from 85.63 in 2019 to 89.41 in 2020, while the median score rose from 92.31 in 2019 to 96.82 in 2020.
• Overall, MIPS engagement declined from 869,899 clinicians in 2019 to 831,885 clinicians in 2020
• MIPS Alternative Payment Model (APM) participation decreased from 416,201 clinicians in 2019 to 398,719 clinicians in 2020
• 91% of eligible clinicians received a positive payment adjustment in 2020, with 80.56% of clinicians receiving an exceptional payment adjustment
• The number of Qualifying APM Participants (QPs) rose from 195,564 clinicians in 2019 to 237,315 in 2020