Each year CMS updates the MIPS program to include more flexibilities for practices and rebalancing of the program. Here are a few highlights of what’s new for the 2022 reporting year:
Clinical Social Workers and Certified Nurse Midwives are included in MIPS.
For the previous 5 years of the program, these clinicians have not been included in the MIPS program. If you are a Clinical Social Worker or a Certified Nurse Midwife, you should check your eligibility to see if your volume meets the requirement to report. By reporting, these clinicians are now eligible for a MIPS program bonus adjustment for high scoring reporting or subject to up to a -9% adjustment on Medicare Part B FFS claims for falling below the final score threshold.
Removal of bonus points for additional outcomes or high priority measures.
The removal of the additional bonus points for additional outcomes and high priority measures is a big update for 2022. Practices were required to report at least one in their chosen 6 quality measures and some practices even elected to report on several to gain additional bonus points to increase their score and chances for top-tier positive payment adjustment. However, with the removal of these bonus points practices will now have to look closely at their processes to ensure they are hitting high marks for each submitted measure.
Promoting interoperability updates for small practices.
Thankfully there’s one less ‘to-do item’ for small practices. Groups of 11 providers or less no longer need to apply for the Promoting Interoperability Hardship Exception to reweigh their MIPS submission score. The Promoting Interoperability section will be automatically reweighted for these smaller groups; however, they do have the option to voluntarily report.
Final score threshold updates.
We’ve learned over the years that scoring thresholds will be incrementally increased each year of the program. For the 2022 reporting year, the performance threshold is set at 75 points to avoid a negative adjustment. This year, the negative adjustment is up to -9% on billed 2024 Medicare Part B FFS claims.
This will also be the final reporting year for the exception performance adjustment which increases the positive payment adjustment for the highest scoring practices. The scoring threshold for this status is at or above 89 points.
Reweighting scoring for each category.
This year, CMS has released updates to how reweighting is done in 2022 so providers know how each activity impacts their final score. In general, the Improvement Activities section is getting a larger distribution of points than in years past. Here are a few scenarios of what that may look like for 2022:
An experienced MIPS consultant can help your team navigate these changes with ease, contact H3 today for your no-commitment consultation.
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