The Society Joins Others in Urging CMS to Reduce 2018 MIPs Reporting Period

This week, AMDA-The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine joined with the American Medical Association and over 40 national medical specialty societies in urging the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to reduce the 2018 Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) quality measure reporting period from calendar year (365 days) to a minimum of 90 consecutive days due to “lack of timely and direct notification by CMS on whether a physician is considered MIPS eligible, as well as a severe delay by CMS in updating the Quality Payment Program (QPP) interactive website with 2018 information.”

The Societies stated that while they support the increased low-volume threshold it may create changes in physicians’ eligibility status making it more difficult to determine eligibility for the year. The letter went on to say that, “despite being held accountable for data tracking and collection as of January 1, 2018, physicians were not informed of basic eligibility information until early April to determine whether they must participate in the MIPS program. Furthermore, in order to determine whether they are eligible for the MIPS program, a physician must actively go on to CMS’ website. Previously, CMS has mailed letters to practices to inform them of their eligibility status, which many practices were waiting on this year. Without direct outreach by CMS to physicians and group practices, many physicians will be left in the dark on their status.”

In addition, the groups noted that reducing the reporting period to 90 days is consistent with CMS’ recent efforts to reduce administrative burden on physicians noting that “the 2018 QPP final rules estimates that burden of recordkeeping and data submission will total 7.6 million hours with a cost of nearly $700 million.”

The groups hope that by reducing the reporting period to a 90-day minimum, physician can be given the option to submit additional data and “have greater flexibility to incorporate the first-year MIPS feedback into their 2018 performance and focus more of their attention on improving patient care as opposed to just reporting.”

To read the entire letter click here.