MIPS payment system is here to stay and medical practices must adopt it. Being a new program, practices should not be comfortable with the rules because changes are likely to occur along the way. This is why eligible practices must have a MIPS strategy to guarantee success and avoid any penalties. Here are some tips for MIPS success.
Have a MIPS team
It is essential to create a multidisciplinary team made up of physicians, nurses, administrative leaders, communication members, operations, quality, and IT professionals to make your MIPS transition successful. Smaller medical practices need to appoint a manager and a physician to head the MIPS initiative. Be sure to review the CMS rules, assign accountabilities, develop a successful work plan, and select success metrics for your practice.
Develop a suitable education plan
Many clinicians and staff members may not be aware of MIPS and how it impacts the practice. This is why every medical practice requires an ongoing and meaningful education plan that is necessary for all the staff members. The MIPS training must be customized towards every department to address different concerns. Making education accessible and convenient for all staff is the key to successful adoption of MIPS reporting.
Report your data
Eligible MIPS clinicians need to report on 3 major performance categories for 90 consecutive days. Even though tracking data through a whole year may be beneficial, you only need the 90-day period to get a potential positive adjustment. If your practice fails to report anything in the 2018 year calendar, you will get a 5% penalty in your 2020 payments. For more information on what is MIPS reporting, check out https://mdinteractive.com/MIPS.
Utilize end-to-end electronic reporting processes
You can earn bonus points by reporting measures with end-to-end electronic reporting. This simply means that your data will be transferred from Certified Electronic Health Record Technology (CEHRT) to CMS through an automated continuous pipeline. Reporting through an end-to-end electronic process will earn your practice an extra bonus point for every measure of up to 10% of the Quality Category score. Clinicians or groups of less than 15 clinicians get 6 points, while larger groups get 7 points.
Compare performance level at both group and individual level
You can optimize your scores by looking at performance rates for both individual and group levels. You can then analyze the scores throughout the year and determine which of the two will result in a bigger incentive payment. You may perform better as a group of clinicians because most of them are offering the same services for the same patients. On the other hand, it is possible to have low performing providers that can be excluded if you are reporting individually but must be included when reporting as a group. As a group, you can also have multi-specialty clinicians that would report better in their respective fields.
Get the best software
One of the best actions that medical practices can consider to prepare for MIPS is by installing the right registry software on their EHR server. The registry software will automate most of the MIPS reporting requirements. With automation, you can save significant amounts of money and time through reduced staff time needed to comply with the set regulations.
MIPS is still new to many physicians and medical practices. However, by taking the necessary action now, you can achieve better MIPS scores in the company years. With time, you will enjoy increased Medicare payments and the reporting process will be much easier.
