Scoring the MIPS Advancing Care Information (ACI) Performance Category in 2017

The Advancing Care Information Performance Category will be replacing the EHR Incentive Program (colloquially known as Meaningful Use) for 2017 performance year, as a part of the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS). One of three performance categories to be scored for 2017 reporting, ACI will be worth 25% of your total MIPS Composite Performance Score. Non-physician eligible clinicians, hospital-based eligible clinicians, and non-patient facing eligible clinicians are considered ineligible for Advancing Care Information, and will have this performance category automatically re-weighted to zero.

CMS will calculate your ACI performance score based on three factors: the base score, the performance score, and any bonus points that may be have been awarded. 

Base Score

The base score is worth 50% of the Advancing Care Information Performance Category Score (50 points). To receive the full base score, an eligible clinician must at minimum attest to the required Advancing Care Information Measures. The required measures will vary based on the certification edition of your EHR (see table below for details).

To be awarded any credit for the Advancing Care Information Performance Category, the quality action for each required measure must be met at least one time. If you do not meet that requirement for any required measure, you will score 0 points for the Advancing Care Information Performance Category.

Performance Score

Where the base score is awarded simply upon successful participation, the performance score (as the name implies) is awarded based on your performance on certain measures. You can determine the maximum possible performance score points for a measure by looking at the "Performance Score Weight" section of the ACI measure specifications. Except for two measures used if you are using CEHRT certified to the 2014 edition, performance score eligible measures can be worth of to 10 performance score points.

Predicting your performance score is straightforward. Your performance rate, or the number of times you complete the specified quality action for a measure compared to the total number of times you reported the measure, will directly relate to the performance score you receive. You can receive a maximum of 90 points in the performance score category. The total category score will be capped at 100%, so you only need 50% as a performance score to have a perfect score for the Advancing Care Information Performance Category.

Bonus Points

Bonus points are available through reporting to one or more public health and clinical data registries beyond the Immunization Registry Measure (+5%), or by reporting specified Improvement Activities (+10%). In total, eligible clinicians can receive up to a 15% bonus score.