Reminder: Register for Today’s MACRA Cost Measures Field Testing Webinar

CMS and its contractor, Acumen, LLC, are conducting a field test for 11 episode-based cost measures and two re-evaluated cost measures before consideration of their potential use in the cost performance category of the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) of the Quality Payment Program.

Field testing will take place from October 3 to October 31, 2018. During this time, clinicians and clinician groups who meet the attribution requirements for at least one of the measures listed below will have the opportunity to view a field test report with information about their cost performance. All stakeholders are invited to provide feedback on the measures and supplemental documents through an online survey, which closes October 31 at 11:59 PM ET. Participation in field testing is voluntary.

Measures that will be field tested include:

Eleven new episode-based cost measures currently under development
Two cost measures undergoing re-evaluation

Register for Today’s MACRA Cost Measures Field Testing Webinar to Learn More

To register for the MACRA Cost Measures Field Testing Webinar please click:

MACRA Cost Measures Field Testing Webinar - Tuesday, October 9, 2018 from 12:00 to 1:30 PM ET

This webinar will provide:

Information about the field testing of the 11 episode-based cost measures and the two re-evaluated cost measures
Project background, measure development and re-evaluation process, and field testing activities
Discussion of the purpose and content of the field test reports, how to access and interpret these reports, and information on the supplemental documentation posted on the MACRA Feedback Page
Q&A session

Should you have further questions, please contact the Quality Payment Program Service Center via telephone at 1-866-288-8292 or via email at qpp@cms.hhs.gov. The Service Center is available Monday – Friday, 8:00 A.M. – 8:00 P.M. ET.

The Deadline to Submit a MIPS Targeted Review Request is Less Than 1 Week Away

You Have Less Than 1 Week to Submit a Targeted Review Request

If you participated in the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) in 2017, your MIPS score and performance feedback are available on the Quality Payment Program website. The payment adjustment you will receive in 2019 will be based on your score. A positive, negative, or neutral payment adjustment will be applied to the Medicare paid amount for covered professional services furnished under the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule in 2019.

MIPS eligible clinicians or groups (along with their designated support staff or authorized third-party intermediary), including those who are subject to the APM scoring standard, may request for CMS to review their performance feedback and score through a process called targeted review if they believe an error has been made in the 2019 payment adjustment calculation.

Please note, on September 13, 2018, CMS updated MIPS 2017 performance feedback for clinicians affected by scoring issues previously identified through the targeted review process. Additionally, to ensure that we maintain the budget neutrality required by law under the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015 (MACRA), some clinicians will see slight changes in their payment adjustment factor. If you believe an error exists in your 2019 MIPS payment adjustment calculation, you can request a targeted review by the extended deadline of October 15 at 8:00 PM EDT- which is less than 1 week away. To learn more, view this 2017 MIPS Performance Feedback Statement.

When to Request a Targeted Review

The following are examples of circumstances in which you may wish to request a targeted review:

Errors or data quality issues on the measures and activities you submitted
Eligibility issues (e.g., you fall below the low-volume threshold and should not have received a payment adjustment)
Being erroneously excluded from the APM participation list and not being scored under APM scoring standard
Not being automatically reweighted even though you qualify for automatic reweighting due to the 2017 extreme and uncontrollable circumstances policy

This is not a comprehensive list of circumstances. CMS encourages you to contact the Quality Payment Program if you believe a targeted review of your 2019 MIPS payment adjustment (or additional MIPS payment adjustment) is warranted. We’ll help you to determine if you need to submit a targeted review request.

How to Request a Targeted Review

You can access your 2017 MIPS score and performance feedback and request a targeted review by:

Going to the Quality Payment Program website
Logging in using your Enterprise Identity Management (EIDM) credentials; these are the same EIDM credentials that allowed you to submit your MIPS data. Please refer to theEIDM User Guide for additional details.

When evaluating a targeted review request, we will generally require additional documentation to support the request. If your targeted review request is approved, CMS will update your score and payment adjustment factor for 2019 (if applicable), as soon as technically feasible. CMS will determine the amount of the 2019 upward payment adjustments after the conclusion of the targeted review submission period. Please note that targeted review decisions are final and not eligible for further review.

For More Information

To learn more about the steps for requesting a targeted review, please review the following:

Questions?

If you have questions about your MIPS performance feedback or 2017 MIPS score, or whether you should submit a targeted review request, please contact the Quality Payment Program by:

Phone: 1-866-288-8292/TTY: 1-877-715-6222; or
Email: QPP@cms.hhs.gov

Register for Upcoming Webinar: Patient Relationship Categories and Codes Webcast — October 17

Webinar Details

Title: Patient Relationship Categories and Codes
Date: Wednesday, October 17, 2018
Time: 1:30 - 3:00 p.m. ET
Description: Receive guidance for classifying patient relationships during the voluntary reporting period that CMS implemented on January 1, 2018. This webcast presents real world clinical scenarios to illustrate how Patient Relationship Categories and Codes work and reviews the statutory context and policy principles used in their development. A question and answer session follows the presentation.For inquiries about the Patient Relationship Categories and Codes, contact the Quality Payment Program Service Center at QPP@cms.hhs.gov or 866-288-8292 (TTY: 877-715-6222). CMS will use webcast technology for this event with audio streamed through your computer. If you are unable to stream audio, phone lines are available.
Audience:Clinicians, clinical staff, organizations representing clinicians, and other interested stakeholders. Clinicians currently eligible to report patient relationships are physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, and certified registered nurse anesthetists enrolled in Medicare.
Event Registration: Click here to register.