Healthmonix Advisor

As the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) become more complex, clinicians will be looking for answers to their reporting questions. Consultants, billers, and technology vendors often face the brunt of those questions, but don’t feel best-suited to answer them. After spending most waking hours assisting with last-minute MIPS submissions last month, I wanted to disclose a few quick tips for you to share with anyone looking to report.

As a mental and behavioral health clinician, you might be immediately skeptical about the title of this blog. CMS has, after all, given you a free pass for two consecutive reporting years. That’s right, the government is actually giving you a break! So why should mental and behavioral health clinicians still report?

Congrats everyone, we survived the first year of MIPS! Whether 2017 represented the first time your practice participated in value-based care initiatives—or an opportunity for your organization to continue performing at a high level in CMS programs—the Merit-Based Incentive Payment System was new for everyone. As we transition to the second year of MIPS, one of the key changes your practice will need to address is the amount of information necessary to achieve reporting success.

My parents love to reminisce about the good old days. They paint a picture of a “simpler” world where milk, ice, and the occasional Schwan’s were delivered right to your doorstep, and where doctors still made house calls. They were direct beneficiaries of the technological advancements that came about after the second industrial revolution and were part of one of the greatest economic expansions in history following WWII. They experienced the evolution of cars, colored television, mass production of penicillin, and automation.

Last week’s 2018 HIMSS Conference presented, as every year, a profusion of insights into the current landscape of healthcare technology. With over 300 education sessions, 1,300 vendors, and hundreds of special programs and events, a HIMSS conference can be hard to boil down into just a few key points. Still, I wanted to share one particularly salient impression that stuck with me after I attended, one that I think anyone with an interest in healthcare should stick a pin in.

 The 2018 winter Olympics wrapped up this weekend in PyeongChang, leaving us at Healthmonix contemplating the many analogous connections between the Olympian athletes and providers of value-based care. So in honor of this year’s champions, we’re laying out why you should follow their example and go for the gold:

1. If you want to place, strive for peak performance.

Apply to help CMS in its new study, running from April 2018 through March 2019, and make your voice heard.

CMS is looking for groups and individuals that are eligilbe for MIPS to help study the burden that the MIPS program, particularly the Quality component, place on eligible clinicians. In return, successful participants will receive full credit for the Improvement Activity component of MIPS this year (2018).

In year two of MIPS and beyond, CMS is including an Improvement score for Quality and Cost measures. This week we take a deep dive into what this score entails, as well as what you need to know to keep yours ahead of the curve.