Healthmonix Advisor

Per the MACRA Quality Payment Final Rule, effective January 1, 2017, the Electronic Health Records (EHR) Incentive Program (Meaningful Use) will be folded into the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) for Eligible Providers. The successor to Meaningful Use, known as Advancing Care Information, includes fewer measures than the current program (yeah!), intends to provide more flexibility in meeting those criteria, and stresses the use of technology to improve patient care. To help you maximize your performance in this category, we have compiled the top five things you need to know now to prepare for next year.

As a young adult from a small town in Ohio, the prospect of leaving my hometown to go to college was a frightening one. I was anxious to leave the familiarity of my high school, and the routine I had perfected to remain an A student. The only expectation that I had was given to me by my teachers, who reported that college would be significantly different and more challenging than high school. As I packed up my ‘63 International Scout to drive to college in August of 1975, the fear of failure was present and strong. However, when I arrived, I found the classes were similar, the pedagogical approach was the same, and as long as I showed up and did the work, I could do as well as I did in high school.

When I was in college, MIPS used to stand for “millions of instructions per second,” a measurement of how fast your computer performs. With MACRA on the horizon, MIPS now stands for "Merit-Based Incentive Payment System." While its aim is to measure value of care, MIPS is now a measurement of how fast your practice can accommodate pay-for-performance reimbursements. With MIPS fast approaching, preparing for the upcoming changes is critical.