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.
An increased low volume threshold and bonus points for small practices will continue to make meeting the minimum requirements in 2018 manageable for many small practices. However, those looking to maximize their MIPS score and earn incentives will need to work both harder and smarter.
Your Quality score remains the largest portion of a practice’s MIPS Composite Performance Score. To meet the increased reporting rate necessary for maximizing your Quality score, clinicians will need to provide at least 60% of their patient visit information for each Quality measure. This necessitates accurate and complete documentation of information in the medical record and the ability to share that information effectively between systems.
Using an EMR to document clinical and demographic information solves one problem. Some EMRs can also make it easy to track Quality measure performance, which solves another problem. But not all EMRs are created equal; understanding what kinds of information are captured in your EMR, and understanding how that information may relate to the MIPS Quality measures you are tracking, is critical for successful MIPS participation in 2018.
So here’s a checklist of three questions that will save you time at the end of the year when you report for 2018:
- Is my EMR able to capture performance for the MIPS Quality measures I want to track and report?
- Are my clinicians documenting the correct information in the EMR to meet Quality measure requirements?
- If my practice is using multiple EMRs, is the data portable and can it be transferred to another system to report collectively?
Answering these questions now may save time and resources in the MIPS reporting process. They may also better position your practice for MIPS success in 2018.
