Volume 3 Ed. 2 | February 27, 2020
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34 Days to Go!
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) have opened the data submission period for Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS)-eligible clinicians who participated in the 2019 performance period of the Quality Payment Program (QPP). Data can be submitted and updated from
10:00 a.m. ET on
January 2, 2020 until 8:00 p.m. ET on March 31, 2020
. To learn more about how to submit data, please review the resources available at the
QPP Resource Library
.
Please note, the data submission period through the CMS Web Interface for Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs), pre-registered groups, and virtual groups also opened on January 2, 2020 and closes on March 31, 2020. Quality measures reported via Medicare Part B claims have been submitted throughout the 2019 performance period. Sign in to qpp.cms.gov for your preliminary feedback on Part B claims measure data processed to date.
For More Information
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QPP Website Now Includes 2020 MIPS Measures and Activities on the Explore Measures Tool
CMS has updated the Explore Measures Tool on the Quality Payment Program (QPP) website for the 2020 performance period. The tool now includes 2020 MIPS measures and activities for the four performance categories:
Please note, the
Explore Measures and Activities
tool is only for informational and estimation purposes. It cannot be used to submit or attest to measures and activities.
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Check Your Preliminary 2020 MIPS Eligibility Using the NPI Look-Up
Tool Today!
Low-Volume Threshold Requirements
To be eligible to participate in MIPS in 2020, you must:
- Bill more than $90,000 a year in allowed charges for covered professional services under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (PFS),
AND
- Furnish covered professional services to more than 200 Medicare Part B beneficiaries,
AND
- Provide more than 200 covered professional services under the PFS.
How CMS Determines Your 2020 MIPS Eligibility Status
CMS reviews both Provider Enrollment Chain and Enrollment System (
PECOS
) data and Medicare Part B claims for services provided during two 12-month segments called the MIPS determination period.
- First segment: October 1, 2018–September 30, 2019
- Includes a 30-day claims run-out period.
- Second segment: October 1, 2019–September 30, 2020
- Does not include a claims run-out period.
The current QPP Participation Status Tool update shows your preliminary 2020 eligibility status based on data from October 1, 2018–September 30, 2019.
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Submission Portal Pointers
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Tip #1
Click the “Print” button at the top of your Reporting Overview,
as there is no "save" or "submit" button once you have entered your MIPS data. Data entered in the submission portal at the close of the submission window on March 31, 2020 at 8:00 p.m. ET is what CMS will use to calculate your score. Be sure to safeguard your tax identification numbers (TINs) in your prints.
Tip #2
Submit early; do not wait!
CMS has indicated that the call volume may be higher than normal. If you are locked out of your Health Care Quality Information Systems (HCQIS) Access Roles and Profile (HARP) account and need technical assistance, you may want to call during the hours of 8:00–10:00 a.m. ET
or
2:00–8:00 p.m. ET, which are off-peak hours indicated by the CMS QPP Service Center. If you have already submitted your data, log back in to check for any score adjustments that may have been made based on previously unprocessed claims or any third-party vendors that may have submitted data on your behalf.
Tip #3
If you are part of an Alternative Payment Model (APM), such as an ACO, please confirm with your ACO that they have uploaded the Quality MIPS data on your behalf.
Do not forget you are required to submit your own data in the Promoting Interoperability (PI) category unless otherwise specified by your ACO.
Do you need assistance with MIPS data submission?
Do not wait! Contact HSAG’s QPP Service Center today. We can help.
Phone: 1.844.472.4227 (8 a.m.–7 p.m. ET)
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The MIPS-submission window is now open! Have you established a Health Care Quality Information Systems (HCQIS) Access Roles and Profile (HARP) account and identified roles needed for submission? Check out some HARP Frequently Asked Questions at the
CMS HARP Help website
. If you have a HARP account, the following are some tips to keep your account active and how to create a strong password.
Passwords must:
- Be changed every 60 days.
- Be changed prior to expiration.
- Are changed by going to portal.cms.gov > My Profile>Click on Change My Profile>Change Password.
- Contain between eight and twenty characters.
- Contain at least one upper case letter, lower case letter, and number.
- Not contain a dictionary word of five letters or more.
- Not contain more than four sequential numbers, such as 1234.
- Contain a special character.
- Not contain these special characters: ? < > ( ) ' " ? | &.
Here are some examples of acceptable passwords:
- Hbfc#867 or H@ll0ween (CAP Initials of first and last name-@-lower case business initials and 3 numbers)
- JA@hc876 (Josh Allen who works at Health Clinic)
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QPP Frequently Asked Question of the Month
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Question: How does my MIPS final score determine my payment adjustment?
Answer:
The MIPS final score will be between 0 and 100 points. Each final score will correlate to a payment adjustment(s), but in most cases CMS cannot project what this correlation will be. Why? MIPS is required by law to be a budget-neutral program, which generally means that the amount of the payment adjustments will be dependent on the overall performance of clinicians in the program.
There are two components of the MIPS payment adjustments. The MIPS payment adjustment applies to all MIPS-eligible clinicians, and the second is an additional payment adjustment for exceptional performance that applies only to those MIPS-eligible clinicians with a final score of 75 points or higher.
For more information please review the
2019 MIPS Scoring Guide
or call the HSAG QPP Service Center at 844.472.4227.
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New QPP Tools and Resources
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To help you prepare for the 2020 performance year of the MIPS, CMS has posted new resources to the
QPP Resource Library
.
QPP Resources:
* CAHPS
®
= Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems
®
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Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Updates
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2020 Call for MIPS Promoting Interoperability Measures and Improvement Activities Now Open
CMS encourages you to submit Promoting Interoperability (
PI) measures and Improvement Activities (IA) for consideration for future years of the MIPS. The MIPS Annual Call for Measures and Activities process allows clinicians, professional associations, and medical societies that represent clinicians, researchers, consumer groups, and others to identify and submit measures and activities. Currently, we are accepting submissions for:
- Measures for the PI performance category
- Activities for the IA performance category
In March, CMS will provide additional information on the Annual Call for Quality Measures for the Quality performance category.
For More Information
- Download the 2020 Call for Measures and Activities Toolkit (ZIP) in the QPP Resource Library.
- Contact the QPP at 1.866.288.8292 or by email at: QPP@cms.hhs.gov. To receive assistance more quickly, consider calling during non-peak hours—before 10:00 a.m. ET and after 2:00 p.m. ET. We also encourage you to contact us earlier in the year, as response times often increase with heavier demand as the March 31 data submission deadline approaches. Customers who are hearing impaired can dial 711 to be connected to a Telecommunications Relay Service (TRS) Communications Assistant.
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2020 MIPS Payment Adjustments
Have you noticed a difference in your Medicare Part B Fee-for-Service payments this year? It could be due to a payment adjustment earned in 2018 for your MIPS performance. Check out the important link below to learn more:
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AMA and AHA Recognize Practices for 2019 Blood Pressure Control Success
In honor of the February American Heart Month,
this is a great time to discuss goal setting to improve blood pressure control in your practice. Under the MIPS Quality performance category, review
Quality ID: #236: Controlling High Blood Pressure
with your practice and contact the HSAG QPP Assistance line to get assistance on launching a quality improvement initiative to improve your patients' blood pressure.
Nearly 1,200 organizations expressed their commitment to improving blood pressure control rates by submitting data to the 2019
Target: BP Recognition Program.
The
American Heart Association (AHA) and American Medical Association (AMA) are proud to recognize these
organizations
for their efforts and continued support of improving their community’s heart health. HSAG congratulates all practices that participated and would like to recognize a few practices in Arizona that achieved the
“Gold Level"
recognition
, "achieving blood pressure control rates at or above 70 percent”!
Med-Cure Internal Medicine
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Subscribe to Get the Information You Need
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Subscribe to HSAG's QPP Quest Digest
Invite your practice staff, practices you refer patients to, and other colleagues to subscribe to HSAG’s QPP Quest Digest!
Stay informed of all monthly QPP updates, deadlines, no-cost webinars and best practices by subscribing
here
.
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CMS QPP Listserv
Don't forget to sign up on the
CMS.gov QPP website
. Once you've accessed the QPP page, scroll to
[Subscribe to Updates]
at the bottom of the page and insert your email address before clicking
[Subscribe]
. The QPP listserv is a valuable resource to stay informed of webinars and important QPP deadlines.
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