Physician Practice

CMS offers physicians QPP prep in advance of transition

Physician Practice Insider, December 27, 2016

Most physicians are all too happy to ring out the Sustainable Growth Rate formula for payments with the end of 2016, but there are many questions about its replacement.

As the phase-in of Medicare's new Quality Payment Program (QPP) approaches, the CMS is presenting webinars to prepare clinicians for the change.

The QPP, which was adopted under provisions of the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act of 2015, features two value-based payment tracks for clinicians: the Merit-based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) and Advanced Alternative Payment Models (APM).

Two payment tracks
The start of 2017 marks the beginning of the transition year for QPP, during which clinicians can pick the pace of their adherence to the reporting requirements for MIPS during the year.

Clinicians who decide to report no MIPS data in 2017 face a 4% payment penalty in 2018.

Clinicians have three MIPS reporting-pace options for 2017, with payment adjustments ranging from "neutral or small" for reporting minimal data to a "modest" bonus for reporting complete MIPS data in 2017.

The reporting requirements will become mandatory in 2018, and the new QPP clinician-reimbursement system is slated for full implementation in 2019.

So far, the CMS webinars about the new payment system have included overviews of MIPS, the QPP, and advanced APM.

On December 13, CMS presented a webinar on two of the four reporting performance categories for MIPS: advancing care information and improvement activities.

This article originally appeared on HealthLeaders Media.

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