Welcome to Health Services Advisory Group’s or HSAG’s podcast on how to participate
in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Merit-based Incentive Payment System
or MIPS and improve your reimbursements and quality metrics leading to better outcomes.
HSAG is the Technical Support Service contractor for large and/or Small, Underserved, and Rural
Practices in Arizona, California, Florida, Hawaii, New Mexico, Ohio and the U.S. Virgin
Islands.
I’m Christi and I will be your host today for this podcast.
The Quality Payment Program, also called QPP, is an incentive program implemented by CMS.
The QPP program has two tracks for clinician participation, the MIPS, and Advanced Alternative
Payment Models.
If you are new to the MIPS and want to learn what it means and how to participate, you
are in the right place.
MIPS is a program in which you earn a score that will impact your Medicare Part B payments.
This score is based on the quality of care and services you provide to your patients.
To determine if you are eligible to participate in MIPS, you can visit the QPP.CMS.GOV website
and enter your National Provider Identification Number or NPI number into the Check Participation
Status tool.
There are six new eligible clinician types that have been added to the MIPS reporting
program for 2019.
They are physical therapists, occupational therapists, qualified speech language pathologists,
qualified audiologists, clinical psychologists and registered dieticians or nutrition professionals.
They join physicians, dentists, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, clinical
nurse specialists, and certified registered nurse anesthetists, many of whom have been
participating since 2017.
There are four MIPS categories Quality, Improvement Activities, Promoting Interoperability, and
Cost.
In the Quality category, clinical quality measures are tools that are used to help track
and report healthcare processes, outcomes, and patient experiences.
Improvement Activities are activities that have been identified as improving clinical
practice or care delivery, and that when effectively executed, are likely to result in improved
patient outcomes.
Promoting Interoperability requires the use of a 2015 Certified Electronic Health Record
to promote patient engagement and the electronic exchange of health information.
And finally, the Cost category uses ten measures to evaluate your cost performance relative
to practices with similar characteristics.
To participate in MIPS, you collect your performance data, submit this data, and receive a payment
adjustment.
Performance data are collected throughout the year and submitted at year’s end.
For the 2019 performance year, you will submit your data between January 2, 2020 and March
31, 2020.
The MIPS payment adjustment is based on the performance you reported and may be either
positive or negative.
It will occur two years after collection of the data, or in 2021 for data collected in
2019.
For MIPS you may report as either an individual or a group.
If you are part of an already established MIPS reporting group, you should consult with
that group to determine how best to participate.
If you or your group are new to MIPS, you will need to work together to select Quality
measures and Improvement Activities to perform this year.
HSAG has developed many different tools to help you participate successfully in MIPS.
These tools can be found on the HSAG QPP service center website at www.hsag.com/qpp under Tools
and Resources.
Thank you for your time today.
HSAG is here to help and answer any questions you may have, such as choosing Quality Measures
or Improvement Activities, finding resources, or using specialty measures sets.
You can reach the HSAG QPP Service Center by phone at 844.472.4227 Monday through Friday
from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern Time.
Our team is also available by email at HSAGQPPSUPPORT@ HSAG.COM and will respond to your email
questions within one business day.
Please reach out to us with your MIPS QPP questions, and we will be happy to assist
you.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Thank you and have a great day!